


Distant Memories

by Tarlan



Series: Architects of Fate [4]
Category: Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG-1, Survivor (1999)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Crossover, Established Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-09-17
Updated: 2010-09-17
Packaged: 2017-10-11 22:41:28
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 42,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/117943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tarlan/pseuds/Tarlan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fourth in the Architects of Fate AU Series. After becoming the Chief Medical Officer on Atlantis, Rodney's medical skills and that of his staff are put to the test when the exploration of the Ancient Medical facility on the north pier sets in motion a sequence of disastrous events that threaten first his own life and, later, the life of the man he loves. Yet not all of Rodney's problems originate on Atlantis, and Rodney is forced into a race against time once again to save John and the rest of the new Atlanteans from a dangerous Pegasus virus, with only the help of a stranger--Ronon Dex.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Distant Memories

**Author's Note:**

  * For [from_the_corner](https://archiveofourown.org/users/from_the_corner/gifts).



> [Art](http://archiveofourown.org/works/120155) by [omg_wtf_yeah](http://archiveofourown.org/users/omg_wtf_yeah/pseuds/omg_wtf_yeah)
> 
> [Art](http://archiveofourown.org/works/119180) by [taibhrigh](http://archiveofourown.org/users/taibhrigh/pseuds/taibhrigh)
> 
> First, I would like to thank my wonderful betas: Taibhrigh, Oran, Mystic and Aqualegia for all their advice and encouragement, and for making this a far better story. I would also like to thank Taibhrigh and Omg_wtf_yeah for their artistic contribution. THANK YOU!
> 
> This story is dedicated to **from_the_corner** , who asked for a John/Rodney story oh so long ago! Enjoy your story :)

He still had the occasional nightmare of running through the Morpheus installation with the creature only a few steps behind him, casting a malevolent shadow off the pipes that lined the walls. Morpheus would change into the interior of the alien farmer's spaceship, buried deep beneath the ice of the Arctic, with its semi-organic walls that were so similar to the innards of a human body. Rodney would run down one of the hidden corridors, stumbling to a halt in what Jack had labeled the meat processing room. A body would slither down the chute onto the slaughter table, triggering the automated cutting tools and he would watch in horror as the body was efficiently slaughtered before being stripped of tissue and organs, the blood running into the channels and drained away. The skeletal remains would slide in one direction, the bones ground to fertilizer, and the meat in another before the next body slid onto the slab--and that was always when Rodney would wake up screaming.

"Hey! Hey."

Strong arms held him as he bolted upright, digging into his biceps as he struggled to escape from a horror that tried to follow him into the waking world. It always took a moment or two for John's voice to penetrate the terror induced by the nightmare--for him to realize that the second body on that slab was not John. Eventually John's voice would seep through and he would relax; his erratic breathing slowing as John rubbed circles over his back and held him close for a long time before pulling back.

This time was no different.

"You okay?"

Rodney nodded as the effects of another nightmare slowly drained away. He should have known today's events would trigger his deepest fear and bring it back to the surface. They had almost lost Daniel today, and despite years as a trauma surgeon he realized it was a lot different when the blood covering his hands was that of a close friend rather than a stranger.

"Daniel?" His voice was croaky and he dredged up a smile of thanks as John handed him a glass of water.

"Got word from Carson about twenty minutes ago. He's out of surgery... and stable. You saved his leg."

Rodney closed his eyes in relief, recalling how hard it had been to remain focused on Daniel's injury while bullets ricocheted off the trees above his head. Drawing in a deep breath, he pushed back the covers and tried to swing his legs over the edge of their bed.

"Hey!" John grabbed his arm.

"I should check up--"

"No. You should sleep. Carson has everything under control and promised he would call you if he needed you." John pushed him firmly until his head was back on the pillow. "And he doesn't."

With a sigh, Rodney tried to relax because he trusted Carson. It was why he had made him his deputy and had given him control of the day-to-day running of the infirmary, aware that Carson had something that he had always lacked--a decent bedside manner. Carson was a good surgeon, but not as brilliant as Rodney. He was a geneticist first and foremost, an exceptional one, but there was a huge difference between manipulating genes and repairing damaged arterial walls.

"Besides, he was assisting Keller, and I know you trust her surgical skills."

Rodney gave a nervous chuckle. "She has small hands."

John took up both of Rodney's hands, turning them over as he inspected them, and Rodney could not help but look too. He wondered if John saw large, blunt fingers that often seemed so clumsy in Rodney's mind. Once more John seemed to read his thoughts.

"I see strong fingers. Agile fingers that play the human body with the skill of a concert pianist." John waited until Rodney looked into his eyes. "I see hands that are in constant motion until they're needed in some intricate task... and then they are as steady as a rock even when the rest of you is shaking in fear." John raised the hands and kissed each one on the open palm before looking back up at Rodney with heat in his eyes. "I love your hands."

"Just my hands?"

John looked at him slyly. "Fishing for compliments?"

Rodney shrugged nervously. "Maybe."

"Oh, I can do better than tell you how amazing you are." His voice dropped to a husky whisper. "I can show you."

Rodney hummed against the lips sealed to his, opening to the gentle probe of John's tongue as the kiss deepened. John settled on his side, one hand sliding slowly over Rodney's skin from collar bone to hip, brushing over a nipple to elicit a spark of pleasure that ignited a slow burning passion. Gasping softly, Rodney let his head loll back as John worked his way down his chest leaving small bites and kisses along the way. He shuddered when John reached his now-hard cock, his strong fingers wrapping around the base and his mouth enveloping the top, sucking and licking as John drew him to an exquisite climax that seemed to roll over Rodney, leaving him sated and exhausted. He made a half-hearted effort to reach for John but John caught his flailing hand and pressed another soft kiss to the palm before laying the hand on top of Rodney's stomach.

"I'm fine. Go back to sleep," John crooned softly.

"Rain check?" Rodney murmured, and Rodney drifted off back to sleep to the feel of a gentle hand brushing through his hair.

Rodney awoke hours later to the warmth of John's body lying next to him, close but not quite touching. He stretched carefully, keeping his movements slow and easy to avoid waking John. Afterwards he settled down and let his mind drift back to the terrifying events of the previous day.

****

**Yesterday**

John sighed in obvious exasperation. "It's a routine follow-up mission, Rodney. Medicine and doctors' services in exchange for part of the Andrans' bean harvest."

Rodney spared a glance away from the monitor, "Yes, yes, but why do I have to go?"

"Because you haven't seen the outside of the med labs in over two weeks. You could use the fresh air."

"I'm in the middle of important research into the organic--"

"It can wait an extra day. Come on," John wheedled. "Fresh air, sunshine... "

"Pollen allergens, skin cancer... "

"McKay!"

Rodney huffed, closing his eyes momentarily in resignation before narrowing them. "Oh... fine! But I'm going under duress."

"You'll have a great time. You just wait and see." John paused at the threshold and gave a sly grin. "Gate room in an hour."

"An hour! I'll need more time than that to--"

"One hour," John emphasized once more before leaving and Rodney heaved a sigh of frustration because it meant he would have to put aside his research immediately if he was to have time to prepare for a day on Medieval World. With a last look of complete longing, he closed down the monitor and began gathering up supplies.

He was five minutes late by the time he staggered into the gate room, loaded down with equipment cases. John raised both eyebrows.

"Do you actually need all of that?"

Rodney looked across the cases, mentally checking off each one: basic medical kit, immunity program kit, and portable mini-operating theater. All of them essential in his eyes as he had no idea what to expect when they reached the village. The people there might already be forming a queue for his attention for all he knew. He had insisted on a nurse accompanying them to handle the vaccinations against some of the Pegasus bacteria and viruses that were remarkably similar to those in the Milky Way, and reacted the same way to the correct regimen of antibiotics and anti-viral agents. On top of this Rodney expected to see other health issues such as problems with teeth and eyes as well as cysts and boils. It all reminded him of when he had given six months of his time to _Doctors Without Borders_ in Somalia though, admittedly, he didn't expect to see it quite as bad as that civil war-ravaged country.

"Is that a portable operating theater?" John asked.

"Obviously," he stated because it was labeled on the case.

"Leave it behind."

"What!?"

"If it turns out that someone needs an emergency operation, we'll deal with it then. Unless you think you can carry all this by yourself for the two mile hike from the gate to the village?"

Rodney looked back at the cases in horror. In truth he hadn't expected to have to carry it any further than the gate room. He had assumed--obviously wrongly--that John and his escorts would split the rest between them, leaving him with just the basic medical kit.

"What about Ford and... " he glanced around and saw Daniel hovering in off-world kit. "And Daniel?"

"Daniel has his own equipment to carry, and Ford is carrying a big gun to protect you."

"From what? You said this planet is perfectly safe."

"And so it appears but I've learned never to take anything for granted."

"If we took a jumper or more men... "

John just raised a single eyebrow and cocked his head, and Rodney knew he was beat. John had been bemoaning the fact that Rodney had camped out in his laboratory for the past few weeks, venturing out only to eat, sleep and deal with medical emergencies that required more hands than Carson and the nursing team could provide. Heaving a sigh of annoyance, Rodney indicated to the nurse to take it back to the medical center. Strangely, she didn't look too disappointed at missing out on the mission, probably thinking she could have an easy day instead.

"I'm sure Carson can find something for you to do while I'm trudging around the backwoods," he stated to the nurse before turning back to John and poking him with a finger. "But don't blame me if it turns out we do need it," he huffed before hefting the other two cases. The chevrons began to encode and moments later the Stargate opened. Taking a deep breath, Rodney followed John, Ford and Daniel across the event horizon.

No one could have anticipated the way the Andrans reacted to Daniel entering some ruins near the edge of the village and Rodney could only feel gratitude that John and Ford had been with them, covering their backs as they fought their way back to the gate. Still, a lucky shot for some Andran was an unlucky shot for Daniel, and Rodney wished he'd carried part of the trauma kit from within the portable operating theater. Instead he had to make do with his fingers pinching the artery to stop Daniel from bleeding out before help arrived.

****

"Hey."

Rodney turned at the sleepy-soft call, his thoughts returning to the present.

"You okay?" John asked and Rodney realized that, yes, he was okay apart from a nagging need to know the current situation with Daniel.

John had sprawled onto his back and Rodney could not help but admire the strong body laid out before him. On any other day he might have given in to baser desires and forgotten all about the world beyond this room, beyond the beautiful man lying in his bed, but concerns for their friend filled him.

"I need to check on Daniel."

John sighed softly. "I know." He made no further attempt to stop the other man from rising and, fifteen minutes later with his skin still damp from the shower, Rodney leaned over and tenderly kissed his lover before heading off to the infirmary.

****

The infirmary was quiet with just the usual background noise of beeps and voices talking in low murmurs. A quick glance around showed only one bed occupied, and Rodney recognized the glasses sitting on the bedside cabinet, visible between the slit in the curtains pulled around the bed. He gave a soft huff of pleasure as he grabbed his white coat off the peg outside his office and slipped it on before heading over towards the end of the bed.

Patting his pocket to ensure his stethoscope was exactly where he had left it, Rodney pulled back the curtain quietly out of a long-held desire not to disturb his patients. After all, if they were sleeping and stayed asleep then he wouldn't have to interact with them. The truth was, he was not as oblivious to the feelings of others as many would believe. He knew all too well if they were hurting either physically or mentally but what he couldn't seem to do was figure out how to alleviate any of that mental anguish with words. He could see the beauty in words just as he could hear the wonder in a single note or chord but his attempts to convey that empathy always came out wrong or discordant. Unfortunately, that was where words had always failed him. He played with words the same way that he played a piano--technically perfect but lacking something because the words chosen seemed right at the time but caused the opposite effect to the one he had hoped to achieve--a mother's grief turned to anger, a partner's concern turned to contempt for him. His piano teacher had told him he lacked passion; that he focused too hard on perfection and therefore failed to see the living, breathing spirit within the music.

He hadn't been filled with passion as a kid but then he hadn't exactly had a particularly joyful childhood, but he had always felt passionate about his work. Perhaps too passionate according one of his former colleagues, seeing only the body and not the spirit it housed. It was part of the reason why he had chosen the Morpheus installation rather than moving to some small town private practice after almost burning out in the ER. He wanted to know the people he would be responsible for. He wanted to see them every day as real people rather than as slabs of torn meat on an operating table that needed his skill to piece back together into a human being.

Strangely there was a time when the stars and machines had held more interest for him, possibly because they did not require any emotional interaction. They could not be offended by his words or strike back at him if he touched a raw nerve both literally and figuratively. But years spent in hospitals with his sick mother and monitoring his own allergies and conditions had turned him towards medicine and the mechanics of the human body. Although he had specialized as a trauma surgeon, he knew others had sought him for other skills--as a diagnostician, as a bio-engineer. Or maybe that should be a xeno-bio-engineer now as he was probably the SGC's foremost expert in alien biomechanics. He had studied the organic components of the alien farmer's ship and environment suit, and he was still assisting Carson and Radek in their research by focusing on the biological elements required for the use of most Ancient technology.

At least Carson's gene therapy had taken with him, opening up further opportunities to study the Ancient devices and their interaction with those bearing the ATA gene. Unfortunately the same could not be said of Radek as the gene therapy seemed to work only on those that had the correct markers to start with--about 48% of the population. Rodney guessed it was a fail safe to ensure no reasonably advanced race could simply mimic the genetic sequence and gain access to every piece of the technology the Ancients' possessed.

Of course the leader of the Athosians had mentioned another race of creatures that sounded similar to the one that had attacked the Morpheus installation in so much as they both wanted to eat humans. Only the methods seemed to differ if Teyla's description of the Wraith was to be believed. Life-sucking vampires. It sounded too fantastical to be true but she had shown John and Daniel some of the outlying ruins on her world, with walls covered in a pictorial history that spanned ten thousand years of being hunted, herded and culled by these creatures.

They had yet to see any of these Wraith but it was fear of their return that had caused the Andrans to attack Daniel when he went into the ruins of a city close to the Andran village. Perhaps Daniel should have heeded Teyla's advice about asking permission first as the Athosians held the same superstition regarding the ruined cities around their home world. Or better yet, maybe they should have asked Teyla to accompany them back to the planet, as she was the one who had introduced them and brokered the trade in the first place.

At least Rodney wasn't going to miss the beans as they tasted foul, and no amount of spices and sauces was going to change that.

Rodney picked up the chart hanging at the end of Daniel's bed and glanced through the notations, frowning over a few very minor adjustments where Carson had amended Keller's recommendations. He made a mental note to have a word with her about making assumptions. Although medicine wasn't an exact science like Radek's beloved physics, there were still certain areas where the patient's medical history governed the choice and dosage of any drug used in that patient's care. Daniel had a pollen allergy that she had not taken fully into account due mostly to a lack of experience rather than incompetence. Her recommendation would not have killed Daniel or harmed him in and of itself, and was a drug he would have recommended in nine out of ten other cases, but should complications occur then her decision severely limited choices for this patient's--for Daniel's--care if they had to go in again and operate on that damaged artery. Fortunately Carson had spotted the possible repercussions and had erred on the side of caution, amending her prescription to a less effective but safer drug for Daniel.

"Rodney?"

Rodney glanced sideways and rolled his eyes at the smug expression on Carson's face. "Yes. Yes. You did good... though I should add that if it hadn't been for me stopping him from bleeding out... "

Carson laid his hand on Rodney's forearm, voice smooth and comforting. "Aye. I know. You did good too."

"Hmm." Rodney felt slightly appeased.

He saw Carson glance down at the notes that were still in Rodney's hands. "You've no need to speak to Doctor Keller. I explained why I altered her recommendation," Carson added softly. "She's still a wee lass, but a quick learner. I won't expect her to make the same mistake twice."

Rodney felt relieved because he hated confrontation unless it was essential. Not that it stopped him from yelling if someone was acting with gross incompetence. After all, these people were supposed to be the best and brightest.

"Rodney."

The whisper-soft call of his name made him glance towards the bed where Daniel was slowly blinking his eyes.

"Um. Hey."

"My leg?"

"Well... You still have it."

"I'll take that as good news then," he responded dryly and Rodney rolled his eyes when he heard Carson trying to hold back a laugh. He watched as Carson picked up the water and helped Daniel sip some through a straw, reminded once more why Carson was far more effective in the Infirmary. It had never occurred to Rodney to help his patient in that way even though he'd had to help his sick mother on too many occasions to recall.

"Your leg is going to be fine. I'm more concerned about your intelligence. What possessed you to go stomping through their ruins?"

"My job, perhaps?" he murmured and despite an urge to carry on berating Daniel, Rodney could hear and see the exhaustion and pain, but Carson spoke before Rodney could pull back gracefully.

"Rodney, I'm sure the recriminations can wait until our patient has fully rested."

Rodney sighed heavily. "Yes, well. At least he didn't lose his leg over this."

"Aye."

****

A week had passed since the incident on Andra and, courtesy of Ancient medical technology, Daniel was already back on his feet though using crutches at Rodney's insistence. Rodney had taken advantage of the peace and quiet to go back to his relatively safe laboratory but he had sensed John's increasing restlessness over the past few days. He could understand why as John had never been one to sit still for long.

Jack had halted the trade and exploration teams while he negotiated with Teyla on providing a guide to accompany every off-world mission. He wanted to reduce the risk of another misunderstanding and Rodney was all in favor of that. After all they had lost some pretty expensive medical equipment and drugs when they were forced to run for their lives--and had almost lost Daniel. Fortunately, most of the medical items could be replaced as Rodney had insisted on the expedition bringing along medical technicians and chemists who could work with Radek's engineers. A lot of people had been frustrated by his insistence on making the expedition as self-sufficient as possible, possibly because no one else truly believed it would be a one-way trip. The others all wrongly assumed that there would be a huge pile of ZPMs waiting for them in the lost city of the Ancients but Rodney was a realist by nature and he had planned for the worst-case scenario--that they would be cut off from Earth indefinitely.

Of course no one liked him saying _I told you so._

John leaned forward and stared across the conference table at Jack. "The city is as large as downtown Manhattan and we've not even fully checked out this central tower."

"Not checked?" Jack looked to Radek, who pushed his glasses up his nose before answering.

"We have cleared the tower down to the ground floor but it extends further, all the way down to the main hyperdrive engines. The tower is structurally sound... however, other towers towards edge of city are not so safe."

"From where the shield collapsed when we first arrived?" Rodney asked and gained a weak smile from Radek.

"Yes. Exactly."

"And by not safe you mean might fall down?" Rodney asked.

Radek took off his glasses and began cleaning them with the edge of his shirt, offering a small noncommittal shrug. Rodney activated the city map and a three dimensional image appeared above the center of the conference table. He pointed to one squat tower in particular, close to the north pier.

"And this one?" The expression on Radek's face told him all he needed to know; he sighed heavily. "Of course it's one of the structurally unsafe ones," Rodney stated, answering his own question.

Jack cocked his head to one side. "Any reason why you picked that tower, Doc?"

Rodney sighed and increased the magnification on the tower. "According to the Ancient database, this tower was used to house the main medical laboratories and facilities." He raised both hands, shaping them to form the bottom half of a rectangle. "Think of a university hospital. Six floors used for patients, two for administration and the remainder housing labs in every medical discipline you can think of."

Jack raised both eyebrows. "You mean there's a whole geek hospital over there."

Rodney smiled tightly. "You didn't truly believe that six-beds and two isolation rooms in the control tower could handle a population of thousands? Hmm?"

John leaned back and pointed at Rodney. "He has a point."

But Jack gave a tight smile in response. "I didn't think they got sick at all. I thought they all had healing abilities... and those palm devices that the Goa'uld stole off them."

"Hello? Deadly plague drove them from Earth," Rodney stated.

Daniel added, "Plus only a small minority had the gift of healing, and it was physically draining so they couldn't use it too often."

John leaned in. "So you want permission to go check out this medical tower... that's about to fall down."

Rodney glanced across towards John nervously. "Well. When you put it like that."

"I do not believe collapse of tower is imminent," Radek insisted. "I can assign engineers to accompany Rodney and his medical team if they wish to do basic exploration. To check structural integrity and to assist in removal of useful medical equipment as directed by Rodney." He raised a finger. "However, there is much damage and debris in this area. All transporters are inoperative. Closest transporter is on north pier."

"Jumpers?" Rodney asked.

Radek shook his head. "No. There is no place safe to land."

"We could hover," John suggested.

Rodney rolled his eyes. "And expect me to jump with a heavy pack onto a debris field? Or maybe you'd rather hover higher and I could strap on a parachute?"

Rodney narrowed his eyes when John took on a contemplative expression but then John smiled instead and pointed to the tower.

"What about the top? Let your engineers go down and check it out, then if it's deemed safe, we go back for Rodney's team," John offered and Radek shrugged and shook his head.

"This tower is sealed exceptionally well, which is only to be expected for area containing medical facilities. Although it was exposed to sea when shield collapsed, I do not expect to see much water damage inside. It is the stability of foundations that concern me. Apart from the no longer functioning transporters, this building has only two entrances." He pointed at the tower. "Here at the base, and here." He indicated towards a bridge linking to the next building.

Rodney pointed to the north pier transporter and traced a path along to the medical building. "It's what, a ten minute walk?"

"Normally, yes, but I suspect closer to twenty as you would need to watch your footing," Radek replied.

"As much as I hate the idea of walking... " He ignored a soft snort from John, "... that seems our best option."

"You think you're going to find some interesting... stuff," Jack asked.

Rodney raised his chin in defiance. "If by stuff you mean invaluable medical equipment then, yes. Despite a hundred years under siege, the Ancients packed up and left very quickly, possibly within a matter of days after the order was given to evacuate. I'm willing to bet they left a lot of medical equipment behind."

"Now, I don't get why they would do that," Jack stated.

Rodney huffed. "Because medical would be one of the first areas they'd set up on Earth but the last place they'd dismantle on Atlantis in a war zone. They'd duplicate the equipment, making the retrieval of what was still on Atlantis a low priority." He held up a finger. "Plus they never expected to abandon Atlantis forever. They put dust sheets over the consoles in the gate room and in the med labs. They fully intended to come back one day."

Jack glanced across the table. "And you can tell all that by the dust sheets. Daniel?"

"He's right, Jack. Every culture we've spoken to here in Pegasus has prophesies of the Ancients coming back to the city to bring an end to the scourge--the Wraith."

"And that would explain the hot and cold receptions we get when we tell them we're based in Atlantis," John added. "Half of them think we're their saviors, the other half... the worst type of squatters."

Jack nodded, understanding the dilemma. He puffed out his cheeks and sighed hard. "So. Getting back to this medical facility." Jack smiled at John. "You think you can handle a bunch of scientists geeking out?"

"Wait! We'll hardly need an escort," Rodney exclaimed. "What are they going to do? Protect us from the ten thousand-year-old dead plants?"

Jack stared hard at him until Rodney nervously shuffled in his seat, then he spoke softly but firmly, letting Rodney know there was no room for maneuver here. "You take the military escort or you don't go."

"Fine! But I'm not going to be held responsible if you and the rest of your goon squad get bored and do something monumentally stupid."

John narrowed his eyes. "Gear up for o-nine-hundred," he stated and Rodney nodded reluctantly before pushing back his chair.

Despite his annoyance, Rodney sent an apologetic glance towards John, relieved at the quirk of John's lips that told him everything was still cool between them despite Rodney's outburst mocking the intelligence of John and his men. He moved off fast, already on his radio organizing the medical personnel he wanted on the team for tomorrow, and the equipment he wanted to take with them.

****

"Come to bed, Rodney."

Rodney glanced across the room he shared with John and could not help but admire the sight of his naked lover posing enticingly on the bed. The cover was strategically pooled around one half of his body from waist to ankle, leaving tantalizing strips of flesh visible and doing very little to hide John's obvious interest in more than sleep. Feeling his mouth dry in anticipation and growing desire, Rodney snapped shut the lid on his laptop, easily deciding to leave his work for another time. It was crazy really; a year ago he would barely have noticed anyone trying to seduce him. He'd been lost in the trauma of broken lives, with no one to hold him and prove to him that there was more to life than wanton death and destruction, or more than the broken and torn bodies of first the war zone of the inner cities and then of Morpheus.

He still had nightmares where he saw the mutilated bodies of the people he had come to know at Morpheus—Geezer, Tanaka, Jinx and Malcolm, even Darren Sloane--and Stark. Especially Stark. They were the ones the alien farmer had experimented upon to determine whether the humans it had found after its billion-year sleep were still edible. Part of him still wished the creature had choked on its victims but at least Rodney had lived to see the creature killed.

The original point of this expedition to Atlantis was to find ways to protect Earth from more of the alien farmers. Though Daniel admitted that the alien farmers might be more ancient than even the Ancients. After all, they were the creatures that had originally seeded Earth not once but twice in known history. Who was to say that they had not been the creators of the Ancients too? Certainly it would explain why the Ancients and modern humans shared the same physical, humanoid form.

It made a really big difference having John in his life. John buffered him from the blood and horror, allowing him to leave memories of the carnage behind at the end of each terrible nightmare and find comfort in John's arms. He helped him through the new traumas too, such as almost losing Daniel to the superstitious Andrans.

Rodney didn't need that comfort at this moment as he'd seen nothing gorier than a paper cut on his own finger in the past few days. But he had learned to appreciate the warmth that penetrated more than skin deep when John held him close.

It had taken a while for him to realize that this comforting was not one-sided, and that he gave John just as much in return.

With a shy smile, Rodney started to undress, glad that he'd taken off his trainers earlier so he didn't have to fiddle with the laces now. When he glanced up after pulling his shirt over his head, John was watching him and he had to fight the urge to cover up under the intensity of that gaze. Even after all these months he still couldn't wrap his mind around the concept that this incredibly hot man wanted him--not even after John stood them both naked in front of a mirror and proceeded to show Rodney exactly why and how much he loved every part of him. It was as if some hidden part of Rodney didn't believe he was worthy of John's love, for despite his healthy ego where his work was concerned, his personal life had always been a mess.

"You're thinking too hard again."

Rodney ducked his head in embarrassment and shimmied out of the rest of his clothes, moving quickly to the bed and sliding partway under the covers beside John. Of course John was as perverse as ever, deciding he wanted to see all of Rodney, and sweeping back the covers. John leaned up onto one elbow and hummed in soft appreciation as his free hand smoothed over Rodney's skin from shoulder to ass.

"I love your ass," he whispered. "Mine. All mine."

Rodney felt the heat of John's desire melt something inside him, turning his innards to jelly and robbing him of breath as his chest constricted in pure pleasure.

"Yeah, all mine," John whispered again as he leaned in and nuzzled against Rodney's throat while his hand caressed Rodney's ass cheek so possessively.

Rodney knew what John wanted to hear in return and yet he had still not worked up the courage to say it, to tell John that he belonged to no one else. Only him. Instead he leaned in and pressed a kiss against the parted lips, feeling a pulse of energy between them that seared a path straight to his groin. He surged against John, loving the slide of skin against skin as their legs tangled. He could feel the answering hardness of John's erection pressed against his lower belly as they rocked together, finding a rhythm that sent them slowly soaring until Rodney reached the peak and gasped out his pleasure as the warmth of his release washed over him. If his fingers had gripped too tight then John made no complaint, holding on just as tightly as the fresh warmth of spilled semen flooded between their close-pressed bodies. Rodney let his head drop onto John's shoulder as his heart beat slowed, gradually gaining control of his ragged breathing, his hands slowly losing their death grip on John, releasing him until they could flop backwards onto the bed, still plastered hard against each other's side.

Rodney swirled a finger through the mess on his stomach, mingling their semen until it started to grow cold and tacky on his skin. He opened his eyes, not realizing until then that he had closed them at some point during their love making. He found John staring down at him, with eyes filled with an emotion that Rodney liked to believe was love rather than mere sated lust. The deep, slow kiss was all the confirmation he needed and Rodney moaned into the pleasure of John's lips and tongue playing lazily with his own.

With a groan, John levered himself out of their messy bed, scratching a hand through the sticky mess on his own hairy stomach before heading towards the bathroom. Rodney listened to the sound of water flowing and then of bare feet padding back across the always-warm, marble floor. He opened his eyes again when he felt the warmth of a damp cloth swiping over his sweaty, sticky belly.

When John dropped the cloth onto the bedside table, Rodney reached for his lover and drew him in close, wrapping his arms and legs around John as the covers were pulled over them. He let his head rest on John's chest, letting the strong beat of his heart lull him down into restful sleep, knowing he would suffer no nightmares that night.

Tomorrow was another day--and it would be a busy day exploring a new part of the city--but tonight was just for them.

****

"McKay? You ready?"

Rodney looked across the gate room floor at Jack and nodded. He had slept exceptionally well last night with no nightmares, waking up a few hours ago and using the time to prepare for a day exploring the medical tower. Beside him several of his medics were geared up and beyond them stood the marine escort and Radek's structural engineers.

"And you know the rules. Engineers first, then you and your people," Jack stated as if talking to a small child.

"Yes, yes. I can assure you I'm in no hurry to have a tower fall on my head."

Jack gave a narrow-eyed grimace. "Well, just bear that in mind if you should get the urge to rush ahead."

Rodney felt surprise when John arrived without a TAC vest, and even more startled when he realized John was actually stepping back to allow Lorne to handle this escort detail. He raised both eyebrows in query but gained nothing but a tight look and smile from John. With a sigh, Rodney realized that John was taking his outburst yesterday to heart, but he did tend to be over protective towards Rodney ever since the Morpheus incident when he had promised to keep Rodney safe from the alien but had failed. John had been clinging even tighter over the past week following the incident on Andra, hovering around Rodney's domain until Rodney had to chase him out of the laboratories. Rodney knew that it wasn't because John didn't believe his men were adequately trained to watch out for the city's Chief Medical Officer--he simply didn't want to trust anyone else with Rodney's safety.

Rodney saw John whisper something to Lorne and saw Lorne pale a little, deciding it was probably a threat to either return with Rodney alive and in one piece or not come back at all. That or he'd just handed off another pile of reports that needed writing sooner than humanly possible.

John had his hands firmly tucked behind his back as Rodney gave the order for the team to move towards the transporter that would take them across the city to the damaged north pier. From there it would be a short hike to the medical tower. Stopping in front of John, Rodney felt a little uneasy at the thought of leaving John behind, unaware until now how much he had come to rely upon John's reassuring presence.

"Um. We should be back in time for dinner."

He saw John tense as if he was restraining himself from reaching out, but then John seemed to relax a little. Instead, John offered a slight yet defiant smile as he reached out and squeezed Rodney's arm, as if to defy anyone to question his right to touch Rodney in public. Rodney guessed it was a hang-over from the years spent serving under the DADT regulations.

"It's pseudo-meatloaf tonight, so don't be late."

Rodney quirked a smile and nodded before stepping into the transporter, and with one last glance backwards--his eyes seeking one last look at his lover--he pressed the northernmost point in the city. The doors closed and when they opened again, moments later, he felt the spray and tasted the salt of the ocean upon his lips. Rodney waited in the corridor beyond until the second transporter had arrived carrying the remainder of his people and equipment. Once everyone had filed out he gathered them together.

"Okay people. Listen up. The tower is approximately twenty minutes in that direction. We let the engineers go in first to verify the integrity of the structure, and then we follow. Nobody touches anything, and that means you too Willis. No touching," Rodney growled but he had seen Willis stupidly putting his hand on something before without verifying it was safe. Even though the man's ATA gene was weaker than Rodney's it still had the ability to power up many of the Ancient devices found in the infirmary and medical laboratories, causing more than one minor panic.

Rodney turned to start off towards the tower but Lorne stepped in front of him deftly with another of his soldiers.

"Doc," he stated amiably enough but Rodney could hear in the harsher undertone that Lorne was going to take this escort duty seriously. With a sigh, Rodney let him lead the way, noticing how two soldiers fell back to take the rear while the remaining four spread themselves between the group of fifteen medics and engineers. With a frown he realized that made it one soldier to every two scientists if Lorne acted as his personal bodyguard, which seemed to be a strong possibility. It seemed that even when John was not here he still had the ability to almost smother Rodney in his protection. Well, as long as Lorne didn't interfere with Rodney's exploration unnecessarily then Rodney could live with it.

Fifteen minutes into the walk, Lorne brought them to a halt.

"What is it?" Rodney pushed forward and groaned when he saw the debris blocking the path ahead. He glanced back over his shoulder and yelled, "Hayson!"

After a moment of hesitation, two of the engineers stepped forward and Rodney frowned.

"I'm Hays and he's Peterson."

"Oh. Right." Rodney grimaced but he had always had trouble recalling names unless the person made their name memorable in some way--like Willis causing havoc with his sticky fingers and Kavanagh with his constant complaints, and that oriental woman, Miko, who was pretty handy when it came to calibrating the medical equipment. The rest he tended to learn only if he had to deal with them as patients and, so far, neither Hayson nor Peters had required medical attention beyond the occasional minor burn salve.

"I'm sure formal introductions can wait until after you've verified that it's safe for us to cross this debris field."

One of the engineers rolled his eyes but moved on past Rodney, and the other followed while muttering something under his breath that was probably not complimentary. Rodney sighed because he had not meant to come across as rude but they really were on a tight schedule and the chance of organizing another exploration team to this tower depended solely on what they discovered here today. The two engineers managed to persuade Lorne to allow some of his soldiers to do the heavy lifting until they had created a reasonably clear path across the final bridge link to the base of the tower. The next obstacle--debris covering the entrance to the tower--was not going to be moved so easily but Rodney had already made a back up plan in this eventuality. He laid a blueprint out on top of some of the fallen masonry.

"Here." Rodney pointed at a bridge linking the medical tower with the one next to it. He pointed upwards to where the actual bridge spanned the distance between the two towers at the eighth floor. "If we can access that bridge then we have our way in."

"As long as that entrance is not blocked as well."

"Well, of course."

Lorne sighed but gave his agreement, leading the small exploration party to the base of the next tower. The entrance way was clear and, according to Hays and Peterson--who had now spoken their names enough times through gritted teeth for Rodney to remember them--this tower was safe enough to enter.

"The power's out," Lorne stated and Rodney heard a collective groan behind him--one that he fully agreed with, as now they would have to take the stairs to the eighth floor. Of course the soldiers didn't look too dismayed by the prospect but then eight flights was probably a warm up for them.

By the time Rodney stepped onto the bridge on the eighth floor, he was breathing heavily and wishing fervently that he was a little less unfit.

"I think we should... rest," he gasped, pointing at the debris-littered floor.

"It's on your dime, Doc."

"Just for a minute," he added, dropping the heavy equipment pack and bending over with his hands on his knees so he could catch his breath.

"Look, Doc, why don't you rest your guys a while longer than a minute while Hays and Peterson go check the integrity of the tower. It should save you a little more time in the long run."

"Good idea." Rodney waved to Hays and Peterson, ignoring the way they grumbled at having to move on while everyone else took a break.

"Mehra, Jorgens, go with them," Lorne ordered before crouching down beside Rodney. "You doing okay, Doc?"

"Why? Do I look ill?" Rodney began taking his own pulse in a fit of paranoia, gaining a huff of a laugh out of Lorne.

"No, Doc. Just asking."

"Hmm. Well." Rodney could feel his pulse dropping back to within safe parameters if perhaps still a little on the high side but he was already aware of his elevated blood pressure caused by the stress of his job. "You can relax, Major. I'm in no danger of an imminent heart attack."

"That's good to hear." If Lorne sounded just a little relieved then Rodney chose to ignore it along with the small slap on the shoulder as Lorne settled down beside him for the wait.

Another half an hour passed before Hays and Peterson returned, looking a little grimy. Hays gave Rodney a thumbs-up gesture.

"Looks like we have a go, Major."

Both of them took a deep breath before standing but Rodney was the one to let his out with a rush of orders. "Okay people. Daylight's burning and I was reliably informed that it's meatloaf night... and I aim to be back there before they run out."

****

John knew he was haunting the control room and making the command staff uneasy but, damn it, he hated Rodney going off anywhere without him, especially when it was unknown territory and could be potentially dangerous.

Though Rodney hadn't said it outright John knew he was holding onto Rodney too tightly since Andra, perhaps even smothering him by being over protective. It annoyed Rodney, and yet even knowing this, John had still been prepared to escort Rodney on this latest exploration of the city just to ensure he stayed out of harm's way. That had changed the moment Jack called him in for an early morning meeting and rightly pointed out that he had to show he trusted his men to protect the scientists--and that he trusted his 2IC to protect Rodney, at least within the confines of the city.

Jack was right. His possessiveness over Rodney could easily undermine his authority with his men if he wasn't careful, and he was sure he heard a little exasperation in Lorne's voice when John contacted him to ask for an update on their position. Under the circumstances he could understand that frustration as he had already contacted him twice before--and they had been gone less than an hour.

The problem was; both Rodney and Daniel seemed to be trouble magnets and John still felt a slither of guilt every time he saw Daniel hobbling around on crutches, or saw Jack watching Daniel with that troubled yet relieved expression. All John could see was his failures. He had failed to protect Rodney from the alien farmer at the Morpheus Installation, and he had failed to protect both Rodney and Daniel on Andra.

Okay, he thought. Maybe that was a slight exaggeration as he had brought all of them back alive on both occasions, but it was the thought of what could have happened that still gave him nightmares. If he closed his eyes he could still see Rodney on the alien farmer's med table, covered in that sticky, mucus-like substance. For one terrible moment he had believed Rodney was already dead until he noticed the slight rise and fall of Rodney's chest. His reaction then had been so strong even though he had barely known Rodney at the time. Now he knew him intimately. He knew how cranky Rodney was in the morning before his first carafe of coffee; he knew Rodney's favorite comic book character, his favorite movie and TV show... Hell, he knew all the little sounds Rodney made when he came with John thrusting deep inside him.

He couldn't lose that. He couldn't lose Rodney.

John rubbed his finger very lightly over his radio, barely holding back on the urge to contact Lorne once more just to be on the safe side. Just as he decided to make the call, he sensed movement close by and heaved a small sigh as Jack leaned against the rail beside him. A quick sideways glance revealed Jack surveying the activities on the gate room floor below them but John knew that was not his reason for coming out of his office. Sure enough he heard a blown-out breath and felt Jack turn to him.

"That little talk we had earlier, Sheppard. About trust? I hate Daniel going off world without me. Even safe missions have a way of developing into something... not so safe."

"Like Andra."

Jack grimaced. "We've both lost people. Good people. And it makes you want to wrap the ones you... care about... in bubble wrap. Lots of bubble wrap."

John smiled at the image of Rodney all wrapped up safe and secure, but even bubble wrap wouldn't keep out a high velocity bullet, or radiation, or some bacteria lying dormant for ten thousand years in an Ancient medical facility. Yet he had to put his trust in Rodney and his people to keep everyone safe, including themselves. He had to rely on Zelenka's people to keep Rodney and his team safe from a building falling on their heads. He had to trust Lorne and his men to protect them from attacks that were larger than microscopic.

"You have to trust them," Jack stated softly as if he was reading John's mind. "Like I trusted you to bring Daniel home safe... .and you did. A little damaged admittedly but... "

John grimaced. He had to trust a lot of people to keep Rodney safe. It was just easier to trust them when he was there to monitor the situation more closely for himself.

"How's Daniel doing?"

Jack smiled. "Oh, he's--"

"Lorne to Sheppard."

John tapped his radio quickly, body tensing. "Sheppard here."

"Building is secure, sir. We're about to go in."

He relaxed fractionally. "Affirmative. Keep me posted."

"Yes, sir. Lorne out."

Jack had a slight smile playing about his lips but John knew he wasn't being mocked. Jack understood him in a way no other CO ever had before. He got that John felt ultimately responsible for all of the people under his command, and that he would never leave a man behind unless there really was no other choice. He knew Jack understood the reason behind John's black mark from Afghanistan and that if Jack had been in John's position then he would have done exactly the same. Jack understood him in other ways too. He understood the importance of that one particular person in his life and how far John would go to protect that person. Jack understood because he had Daniel. Unfortunately for John--and for Jack too--neither Rodney nor Daniel made it easy for them. They were headstrong and single-minded in their pursuit of knowledge, and neither wanted to be held back from discovering the mysteries of the universe by an over protective lover.

"They're about to go in," he stated quietly and Jack nodded solemnly.

"Of course, there's nothing to stop you from running a few practice drills out on the north pier," Jack added almost too nonchalantly, with a twinkle in his eye.

John smiled. Yeah, Jack understood him all too well and it seemed he had a few tricks up his sleeve that he was willing to share.

****

Rodney surveyed the empty reception area lying just beyond the bridge. At this level, the tower looked in no worse condition than the main control tower at the center of the city but he knew appearances could be deceiving. The shield had collapsed in this part of the city during those frantic hours before the city rose from the bottom of the Lantean ocean. Rodney might not be an engineer, and he might not be seeing much evidence of water damage in this particular area either, but all that meant was that this area had been better sealed from the elements. It was no guarantee that other areas both higher and lower had not sustained structural damage from the force of water crashing down onto the unprotected building.

However, Hays and Peterson seemed to believe it was safe enough for now but Rodney remained cautious by nature. He gathered everyone around him.

"If the database schematics are correct then this floor, and the one below, housed the administrative centers. The six floors above were used for patients, and everything below admin was med labs. Wagner, take your team up. Singh, you and Hwang can check out the administration levels. I'm heading down with the rest of you. Floor by floor sweep. You see anything then make a note but... Do. Not. Touch... " he narrowed his eyes deliberately and sent a glare, "Especially you, Willis."

Willis grumbled under his breath but Rodney was going to keep on berating the idiot until it sank into his thick skull that he should leave the touching until they were fairly certain what it was they were dealing with. Next time it might not be a simple scanner but some other item--like a laser scalpel, which was a precision tool in the hands of skilled surgeon but a terrifying death ray in the hands of anyone else.

Rodney continued. "I'll repeat that. If you have any problems, see anything suspicious or of potential interest then report it in before you do anything. If it's structural then let... " He turned and pointed, "Hays and Peterson take a look first. No heroics."

He glanced around the group, only nodding in satisfaction when everyone--including the marines and Lorne--acknowledged his words in some form or other, though most of the soldiers looked to Lorne first. Lorne took the hint and stepped up.

"You heard Doctor McKay. No heroics. You see something... you report it in."

Lorne raised an eyebrow and Rodney made shooing motions with his hands when no one moved. "Go! Check in on the hour, every hour."

Rodney watched the teams split up with Wagner taking her team and heading towards the stairs leading up to the next level and Singh moving towards the first of the office rooms close by in case there was a separate medical database accessible on the admin levels. Lorne must have made the duty assignments earlier as soldiers peeled off to follow each party without a verbal command. The largest group remained with Rodney and he indicated towards the darkened stairs leading down. The lights came on feebly, casting a dull, blue light on the stairs and pushing the rest into shadow. Once more, Lorne slid in front, almost elbowing Rodney out of his way, and Rodney was hard pressed not to roll his eyes at the obvious move. Instead, Rodney unclipped the flashlight from his belt and played it across Lorne's back and then towards the corner of the stairs.

"Major! Mind that ten thousand year old plant." Lorne twisted, P90 raised so the flashlight caught on the long dead twigs. "It might be carnivorous... if it wasn't dead," Rodney added.

Lorne's shoulders remained tense as he looked up towards Rodney in annoyance and mumbled something under his breath about doctors crying wolf before continuing on down the stairs with the P90 held loose but ready nonetheless. Behind him, Rodney smirked while a couple of the other scientists sniggered. With luck, Lorne would remember and mention it to John later, reminding him of Rodney's outburst yesterday.

After walking down past the second admin level, Rodney brought the group to a halt and deliberately changed the team allocation. Instead of one team of five scientists and another of four, he split them into equal teams of three. Lorne's mouth tightened when he realized he could no longer assign one soldier to two scientists--leaving him watching over Rodney personally as planned.

"Major? Is there a problem?" Rodney asked in feigned innocence only to see Lorne's lips tighten and twitch.

"No problem, Doc."

Moments later the group split up with only Lorne accompanying Rodney's team as they headed down one long poorly lit corridor radiating off from the stairwell. Rodney held a flashlight over the control panel and watched as Hays opened the first of the laboratory doors while Keller stood back, all wide eyed with excitement. Finally the real exploration had begun.

****

Rodney played his light over the interior of the laboratory as he moved further into the room but it was obvious that this laboratory had been stripped clean before it was abandoned. He could only hope that not all of the rooms were in the same condition or this entire exploration mission would be deemed a complete waste of time. With a last check for any hidden doorways, shelves or alcoves, Rodney gave a sigh.

"Nothing here. Let's move on."

"Maybe the next one will have something," Keller stated brightly but Rodney could see the disappointment lurking behind her eyes. Silently he wondered if he had ever been as young and optimistic as her, before recalling that he was barely ten years older: hardly an old man looking back on his youth. He just felt old sometimes, perhaps because he had started his medical career so young, becoming one of the youngest surgeons on record--or maybe it went further back than that.

When his mother miscarried and lost not only Rodney's baby sister but his father too when he abandoned them, Rodney had been forced to grow up fast. He had taken care of his mother, pretending to be home schooled by her when, in truth, he had been his own teacher, learning everything he needed to know from books. It had made for a short and lonely childhood.

Keller was a protégé too, though Rodney still held the record if only by a few scant months. She had amazing potential but he wondered if his aborted childhood, spent as a caregiver for his mother, had given him that additional insight when it came to paying attention to the small but often important details of patient care. Perhaps it was why he had excelled as a trauma surgeon, but also why he had almost burned out following one more senseless death.

His mind seemed to map every injury no matter how small and how seemingly insignificant, building a picture of the trauma suffered by whatever victim came rolling into the E.R. Stabbings, gunshot wounds, and beatings with fists or blunt instruments brought a never ending stream of broken bodies and misery to Rodney's operating table, with gang wars sometimes spilling into the hospital and adding to the carnage. All of them left their mark on him whereas Keller had completed her internship and started her residency in a small town in Wisconsin that had one of the lowest crime rates in the country. She had seen her fair share of trauma but not in the relentless battle of the inner cities where the victim was just as likely to be a child caught in a drive-by shooting or robbery.

Part of him had missed that hectic life after spending six months in a mining installation under the frozen wastes of the Arctic but he had discovered the best of all worlds when he accepted the post of Chief Medical Officer in Atlantis. Not only did he have this amazing, literally out of this world work but for the first time he had a life too. He had an amazing lover--even if John could be a little possessive on occasion--and he had made some good friends. Not that he hadn't made at least one friend in Morpheus--Adam--who was, fortunately, one of the few that had walked away from the incident in one piece. Both Adam and Kat were back together as husband and wife and were now working as part of an SG team, sent out on geological missions to look for useful minerals and metals like Naquadah--and Rodney had John.

Rodney let his thoughts of John wash over him, finally admitting, if only to himself, that he wished he hadn't made such a fuss as he missed having John beside him. As much as he liked Lorne and respected his abilities, he was not John with his easy wit that matched Rodney snark for snark.

"Doc? The light!"

Rodney murmured an apology and held the flashlight up at a better angle so Hays could open up the next door. He didn't really need Hays to do this for him as Rodney had soaked up a lot of engineering knowledge while he studied the biomechanics of the alien farmer's ship and environment suit. Radek had even mumbled once that Rodney should have been an engineer rather than a surgeon, which was high praise indeed coming from the highly critical Chief Scientist.

The door slid open and Lorne moved in first, the light on the P90 sweeping the room. Behind him Rodney grinned as he saw the console stationed to one side and a long bench running across the center of the laboratory. All they had to do now was figure out what the Ancients' had been studying here, and if it was worth making a note for a return visit.

Taking great care, Rodney moved over to the console and touched it lightly on top, thinking ON. The console made a feeble attempt to initiate but Rodney sighed when it became obvious that there was simply not enough power getting through to it. He knew he could wait for Radek's people to restore power to this area or he could ask Hays to retrieve and hook up the small portable Naquadah generator that had been left on the eighth floor reception area. The problem was that this console looked identical to the main scanner in the Infirmary, and this was only one laboratory among many. If he waited for Hays then he would be increasing the potential risk of wasting his valuable time discovering nothing of new or monumental importance.

Moving around the laboratory, Rodney touched on areas where they would find opening panels, pleased when the first one reacted to his ATA gene. Inside was a selection of hand held scanners that were similar to the ones they had already discovered in the central tower's medical area. As more panels slid open to his touch it became clear that this was just a treatment area rather than a research laboratory, just as he suspected.

"Keller, make a note that there are a few more scanners here."

He would send someone back to collect them later. Rodney took one last glance at the main console, wondering whether it might be a good idea to set up a second medical center, similarly equipped to the Infirmary, but set some distance away from the main tower. This medical tower would have been ideal if it had been structurally sound but there was another tower out on the east pier that held promise. Of course, he wouldn't be able to spare anybody to man it on a daily basis but it would make sense to have a back-up facility in the case of an emergency. He made a mental note to speak to Radek and Jack about it later.

A third room revealed nothing of interest at all, just a single control station and platform but no power to assess its purpose. Some instinct made him believe it was a genetics laboratory so Rodney added it to the _Carson to investigate at a later date_ list and had his team move on. Rodney could sense the lessening of enthusiasm when the three teams met back up close to the stairwell.

"As no one babbled down my radio in excitement I'll take it that none of you found anything of use?" A glance around confirmed his words. "Well, then let's move onwards... or downwards, actually."

Once more Lorne led the way but this time Rodney made no comment. By his reckoning they had seven more hours before they would need to head back to the center of the city. That was still plenty of time to make a real discovery.

****

The next level down showed the first signs of promise when Hays couldn't open the door to the third laboratory. With a sigh and an "excuse me," Rodney nudged him aside and took over, ignoring the glare from Hays. The door slid open a few moments later and, once more, Rodney stepped back to allow Lorne to enter first. The lights came on weakly, reflecting off transparent tubes, Erlenmeyer flasks and cylinders. Scattered equivalents of data pads implied that the occupants had left in a hurry, sealing the room behind them and never returning.

Rodney plugged his laptop into the console the way Radek had shown him and started searching through the data held only in this room but the power cut out before he gained even the smallest insight into what the Ancient scientists had been working on here but if he was right then this was important research. Rodney straightened and made a decision.

"Hays, can you bring down and install the generator... please."

Hays nodded and turned away only to be called back immediately by Lorne. "No one goes off by themselves, Doc. That's the rules."

"What!?" Rodney squawked indignantly because it wasn't as if he was asking Hays to go exploring. All the man had to do was go up three levels. He opened his mouth to object further but Lorne was already on his radio.

"Evans, meet Hays at the stairs. Report back once you have the generator and are on your way back down."

Rodney relaxed a fraction as Evans must be one of the soldiers that went left with Johnson's group when Rodney's group went right at that last intersection. Lorne turned to Hays.

"No sidetracking, Hays. You head straight to the stairs."

Hays gave Lorne a tight, mocking smile and eye roll, which made Rodney feel uncomfortable because he knew Lorne was simply doing his job, even if none of them had to like it. Admittedly, Rodney had acted the same earlier but he had earned the right to mock the military, if only because he was the Chief Medical Officer for the expedition, and although a civilian, he out-ranked Major Lorne. Hays didn't have that right or position. After Hays left, Rodney gave Lorne an apologetic half-smile. Lorne said nothing but his stony expression softened a fraction.

"Right." Rodney rubbed his hands together as he addressed his sole remaining team member. "Let's catalog what we have out in the open while we wait."

Keller smiled brightly and moved to the end of the bench, pulling on gloves before she reached out for the first data pad. "What do you think they were doing here? Do you think they were studying Ascension, or working on...?"

Keller's chattering was annoying, asking him questions for which he had no answer, so Rodney tried to block her out. Once the generator was powering up the console then he might be able to answer a few of those questions, but anything he said now would be idle speculation and nothing more. Fifteen minutes later, Hays returned with the generator and another soldier in tow--Evans, Rodney presumed. During the wait Rodney had checked each of the data pads but they were all encrypted so he would bag them and take them back for Radek to play with. With not much else to do, Rodney glanced idly across at Hays as the engineer removed a side panel and started to remove a few crystals. Something was wrong with the image in his head though, so he took a few steps closer and leaned in.

"Shouldn't you remove the blue-tinted one before--"

Hays huffed in annoyance and glared up. "I know what I'm doing, Doc. Why don't you step over there and leave me to set this up."

Part of Rodney wanted to snap back a retort but Wagner chose that moment to contact him over the radio.

"McKay here."

"We've found what we think is a bone knitter device up on Level 12. Peterson believes it is portable and has just finished detaching it from the wall."

"Good. That's good." Rodney grinned, already imagining how useful such a machine would be if they could get it working. "Um. There was a large area just across the bridge in the other tower. Leave it there for transport later."

"Yes, Doctor McKay. We're already on our way."

Rodney had paced most of the way across the laboratory by the time Wagner signed off, and he was turning to share news of the find with Keller when the force of the explosion sent him hurtling towards the far wall with Lorne, and into darkness.

****

John was surprised no one had thought of this earlier as the north pier turned out to be the perfect place to hold drills. He had just enough stable debris to make it excellent for battle simulations, crawling from one piece of cover to the next while avoiding being laser-tagged by the other side. So far he had made three kills, hearing the outraged grumbles as those men were forced to remain in position to add to the realism but could no longer engage in battle. The distant rumble shifted loose debris but was otherwise unnoticeable but John stood up immediately and looked towards the center of the city to where he could see debris falling from a squat tower--the medical tower.

"Got you, sir!" chorused two of his men but John turned; face cold and hard as fear for Rodney swept over him. "Game's over. Stackhouse, everyone fall in." Without waiting for an answer John tapped his radio. "Sheppard to McKay. Rodney. Come in Rodney." He waited several long seconds, his fear growing as the radio remained silent. "Sheppard to Lorne. Major, do you read me?"

"Sir, men are standing by."

John glanced around and nodded firmly to Stackhouse before making another radio call. "Sheppard to Control. We have a situation out here."

A twenty minute walk became a fast paced seven minutes as Sheppard led his men across the debris to the base of the second tower. Eight levels of stairs that had taken Rodney's equipment-laden people a further twenty minutes to climb became a three minute race despite full combat gear. Sheppard had picked his battle-simulation personal with great care even though he hoped he wouldn't have to use their expertise. For now he stepped back and allowed the engineers to check the stability of the bridge leading across to the medical tower. Reports had started to come in from several of Rodney's medical teams working in the higher levels--mostly cuts and bruises--but nothing from the teams below. As he looked across the bridge he saw movement and recognized Doctor Singh, and held out a hand to tell the man to stay where he was until it was deemed safe to cross.

"Sir, the bridge sustained damage but should take the weight of no more than four people at a time, but preferably less."

"And the towers?"

"This one is sound but the other was already unstable. I can't determine how badly the explosion affected it without going across and checking it out, but if that tower goes then this bridge will go too."

Glancing up between the buildings he considered the possibility of bringing in a jumper but the overhangs onto the bridge at either end restricted access from above, and left the middle section too narrow. The wind was picking up too, channeled through the gap between the buildings so hovering would require the pilot's full concentration. John was willing to bet that he was one of only four or five pilots who could possibly pull it off so he decided to hold back on that option as a last resort.

"Okay. Let's take it easy, keep it to no more than three on the bridge at any one time, and get McKay's people to this side for safety. I want everyone harnessed just in case."

"Yes, sir. I'll set up a line."

John tried the radio again while the engineer set up the equipment he needed with assistance.

"Sheppard to McKay. Rodney, where are you?" He sighed raggedly, holding onto a calm center even though the continued silence from his lover was slowly killing him. "Sheppard to Lorne. Come in Major Lorne."

A crackle had him tensing. "Sir, Lorne here."

"Major! You're giving us all a scare out here. What's your situation?" What he really wanted to ask was far more personal but he held back on the demand to know what had happened to Rodney.

"Scaring myself, sir. We found a promising laboratory. Hays was setting up the portable generator but something must have gone wrong. It exploded and brought most of the ceiling down on us." There was a long pause. "The Doc was right in front of me when it happened. He's pinned down under debris. Pulse is thready. He's unconscious... but he's still with us. Doctor Keller says she's fine but trapped near the door."

John barely heard anything beyond _still with us_. Alive. Rodney was still alive. He snapped himself out of it.

"And Hays?"

"He was on top of the generator when it happened."

Sheppard nodded and lowered his head even though Lorne would not see the gesture. Clearing his throat he spoke softly. "We're on our way. Take care of Rodney. Let me know if there's any change."

"Colonel? We're ready to start crossing."

"Hook me up, Griggs. Then I want you and three others to follow."

"Yes, sir."

John slipped into the harness and once all was ready he stepped out onto the bridge and picked his way through the debris to where more of Rodney's people and Lorne's men were congregating, all of them looking shell-shocked. John removed the harness immediately and cast a glance around the group. Most were sporting injuries but none looked as if they needed support. He slipped the harness onto a young woman he recognized as one of Rodney's nurses. She was far more than that though. All of the medical personnel were highly skilled research scientists who took their turn in the infirmary on the duty roster as doctors or nurses according to their credentials, leaving only a few like Rodney and Carson to handle the medical doctor role as their main duty. Even so, Rodney and Carson still found time for their particular areas of research in between patient care.

As if thinking of him had summoned him, Carson's voice came over the radio.

"Colonel, I've reached the North pier. My team will be with you as soon as possible. Have you heard from anyone?"

John could hear the harsher breathing, aware that Carson was probably moving as fast as he could even as he spoke.

"We have walking wounded. Six of your people and three of my soldiers so far. I've established contact with Major Lorne."

"Rodney?"

John relayed the information quickly and signed off as he finished tightening the harness on the nurse. He faced the frightened woman and smiled in reassurance. "Just take it nice and slow and you'll be fine." Turning to face his men stationed on the other side of the bridge, John contacted them and let them know they had the first of Rodney's team ready to make her way over. He turned back to Griggs who had followed him across. "Leave one of your men here to make sure the rest of these people get across safely."

"Yes, sir." Griggs passed the order along but as John started moving towards the stairs a small hand grabbed his arm.

"Colonel Sheppard. I'm coming with you."

"Doctor Cole. You need to--"

"Be part of the rescue team. We have wounded below."

"I can't ask you--"

"I was part of the first medical response team following the Bam Earthquake in 2003. I know what I'm doing, Colonel."

"Okay. Griggs, get her some protective gear."

John chafed at the delay but Doctor Cole was fast and they lost only a few minutes before John made the first tentative steps down the stairwell, grateful that it was relatively clear of debris--for now.

****

"McKay? Doc!"

Rodney could hear Lorne's voice coming as if from a great distance and he struggled to answer, all the while wondering why he couldn't hear John.

"McKay! Come on. Open your eyes." Rodney could see flickers of light. "Yeah, that's it. Come on."

"Where... ?" His head hurt and his eyes felt like they were full of grit. His throat felt no better with the single word coming out as more of a croak. He tried to make some saliva but his mouth was too dry.

"Here," Lorne spoke softly and Rodney moaned as he felt a damp cloth pressed against his lips. He sucked out some of the moisture from it. It wasn't enough and it was too warm but it was still the best thing he had tasted in what seemed like forever.

"More?" He asked, almost surprised at the weakness in his voice.

"Sure, Doc."

Heaven again as he sucked the moistness from the cloth pressed against his lips. "What happened?"

"The generator exploded, and brought down the ceiling."

"Needed to cross the blue-tinted... "

"Doc?"

"Hmmm?" Rodney stared up at Lorne in confusion.

"Blue-tinted?"

"Yeah." He nodded but regretted the motion instantly.

"Okay." Lorne drew out the word before patting Rodney on the shoulder awkwardly. "You just rest. Don't try to move."

Rodney heard the other sound that had drawn him back to consciousness, the clink and clatter of shifting rock and pebbles. It had started up again and he let his eyes roll sideways, catching sight of Lorne's face and hands moving from shadow to light from within the beam of a P90's flashlight as the Major worked beside him.

"What... you doing?"

He frowned because his words were slurred. That wasn't a good sign. Possible head trauma, or blood loss, maybe even a stroke. Had he suffered a stroke? Or had he hit his head? When had he hit his head? Rodney moved and groaned as the pain almost smothered him. "Oh yeah," he murmured, "Definitely head trauma."

Strong fingers, speckled with blood, dug into his shoulders. "You've got to stay still, Doc."

"Good advice." Except something else was nagging at him. "Where's Keller?"

Lorne grunted and Rodney heard something heavy drop. "I spoke to her a few minutes back. She has cuts and bruises but is otherwise okay. The bench took most of the blast and the doorway protected her from falling debris. Now there's some of our people digging from the other side, she's sure she'll be out in no time."

"And... Hays?"

Lorne remained silent for a long time, slowly clearing more of the loose rubble away from Rodney's body. Eventually he stopped and sighed hard. "Not sure he made it."

Rodney closed his eyes against the prickle of tears from another senseless death. "Tired."

"Yeah, but I need your to stay awake, Doc."

"Where's John?"

Lorne cleared his throat. "Colonel Sheppard's on his way with a search and rescue team."

"Are we trapped?"

"Not for long." Lorne turned his head away but Rodney caught the words said under his breath. "I hope."

Rodney could hear him moving debris again; slowly feeling some of the weight lift off of his lower body. The doctor in him needed facts though so he sucked in a breath and wiggled the toes of the right leg. When he felt them move and without pain, he tried the same maneuver with his left leg. He bit back on a cry of pain but at least they had moved.

"Doc?" Lorne looked down at him anxiously.

"Needed to check for nerve damage. Think my left leg is fractured." Rodney found his own pulse point and counted, quickly becoming aware that his blood pressure was lower than normal, which meant he was bleeding out slowly. His concern now was whether Lorne would cause more harm than good if he took any more pressure off the wound before more medical assistance arrived. "Major. You need to dig towards the door. Get Keller."

Lorne gave him a confused look. "I need to get you out from under--"

"No. The debris might be keeping pressure on the wound. We need to... " He coughed as he inhaled some of the dust. "Need to dig to the door anyway. Only way out."

"No it's not. Ceiling collapsed, remember. We've got more chance of going up to the next level."

Rodney glanced upwards but couldn't see much beyond the light cast out by the P90 so he had to take Lorne's word for it. He blinked hard when he thought he saw a flicker of light above. Moments later, everything blocked out as Lorne stretched over him, covering Rodney's face and upper body as a shower of small stones and dust cascaded around them.

"Lorne! Major!"

_John! It was John._

"Down here, sir!"

****

John had made radio contact with Lorne as soon as he and the rescue team were on the stairs leading down.

"How are you and Rodney doing?"

"McKay's in and out of it. I'm moving as much debris as I can but he's pinned under some of the ceiling."

"Keller?"

"Evans and Sloper should have her out soon. Looks like this lab took the brunt of the explosion. According to Evans, the corridor is relatively clear although some of McKay's people were hit by falling debris. Evans is sending up those who can walk with Lieutenant Vega and Sergeant Mehra so you should see--"

Rushed footsteps coming from the stairs below caught his attention, followed almost immediately by the flicker of flashlights. "Yeah, I see them." Two of his men were with the group of four frightened scientists. "Sergeant Mehra, the way up is clear. Keep these people moving."

"Sir!" Mehra moved on instantly, taking McKay's people with her but Lieutenant Vega stopped.

"Sir, we still have two injured below."

"Doctor Cole?"

Cole nodded her agreement and Vega joined them as they started back down the stairs.

A crackle on the radio preceded Lorne. "Sir, I think you might have better luck reaching us from the level above. There's a big hole in the ceiling but at least five feet of solid debris between us and the door."

"Sounds like a plan, Major. We'll be there soon."

John didn't bother asking exactly where they were as he could see the dots of five life signs clustered in one area and knew the two dots set slightly apart had to be Lorne and Rodney. A further two life signs further away had to be the injured scientists. There should have been eight life signs altogether, which meant Hays had not survived the explosion.

"How's he doing, Lorne?"

"Still slipping in and out of it, Sir."

John felt his chest tighten in renewed fear, terrified that Rodney might be slipping away permanently. When his party reached the level indicated by Lorne, Sheppard nodded to Vega and Cole, taking a moment to watch them continue on downwards before heading into the corridor. He knew Evans and Sloper were on that lower level too and would help Cole and Vega evacuate the remaining injured once they had dug out Keller. John pushed on at an even faster pace, using the life signs detector to guide him to the laboratory set above the one where Rodney lay injured, possibly dying.

When he reached the laboratory, John realized they had a problem as all the remaining power had gone out, sealing the door closed. Suddenly grateful that he had taken lessons from Zelenka, John released the lock by removing several control crystals. That done Jorgens and Dietrich used a lever to pries open the door. John checked out the layout of the laboratory before stepping inside, making note of where the floor looked unstable. Slowly, he made his way towards the edge of a massive hole to where he could see a flicker of light shining up from below. Dust particles danced in the air and he cursed under his breath as he inadvertently sent a small shower of stones raining down on the two men trapped below.

"Lorne! Major!"

"Down here, sir!"

Lying down, John wriggled towards the edge and looked down, closing his eyes momentarily in relief when his flashlight reflected off two pale and dust-covered faces looking right back up at him.

He glanced over his shoulder. "Jorgens."

John only needed to say the soldier's name once and Jorgens instantly took charge, ordering Griggs and Dietrich into setting up the equipment and lines needed to rescue those trapped below. John had always been a hands-on guy so he hated standing idle but his men were hand picked by the SGC to come on this expedition because each knew his job and did it well. With Rodney's life at stake, as well as Lorne's, John knew he had to leave it to the professionals in this instance. Within two minutes the laboratory was flooded with light while another light was lowered through the hole. No one asked John to move from his position looking down into the hole so he stayed where he was and offered what he could to the men trapped below--reassurance.

"The guys are setting up the gear so we'll have you both out of there in no time."

"John?"

John's voice softened without conscious thought. "Hey, Rodney. How're you doing?"

"I have a ceiling on top of me," he snapped back but Rodney's tone lacked its usual bite and his voice was weak.

"Colonel," John switched his attention to Lorne. "Doctor McKay believes he'll need immediate medical attention once we take the pressure off his legs."

Before John could respond he got a call from Evans.

"We've got Doctor Keller out. She's uninjured. We'll be heading up with Doctor Cole and the other injured in a few minutes, sir."

"No, wait. Bring Keller here now."

Griggs was an excellent field medic but Rodney had once admitted that Keller was almost as good a surgeon as him. More importantly to John, having two specialists giving immediate medical attention had to improve Rodney's chances of making it out of this in one piece.

"Colonel," Jorgens caught his attention. "We're ready to go."

Lorne had cleared enough room for two more people and it took all of John's control not to insist on being lowered down first but Rodney needed a medic more than he needed his lover right now. It wasn't as if Rodney couldn't simply look up and see him anyway. He glanced up as Jorgens went down first, most likely to assess the damage below to see what tools he would need. As soon as Jorgens feet touched bottom, he took off his harness and began strapping it onto Lorne.

"Need to take you out of here, Major. Need the space to work on the Doc."

Lorne nodded and only then did John notice Lorne had injuries too and realize how exhausted the man looked. He was holding one arm awkwardly and his fingers looked bloodied and torn, probably from trying to move debris off of Rodney with his bare hands.

"Ready."

The winch pulled Lorne up slowly and he was grabbed by Griggs and Dietrich as soon as he cleared the hole, drawing him to one side and into the corridor beyond. John heard Keller's voice, heard her asking Lorne a few pertinent questions concerning his injuries. She must have been trained in triage as she worked quickly before sending Lorne up with Sergeant Sloper. By then, Griggs had put on the harness but he seemed to be waiting at the edge, and John figured he was waiting for Jorgens to give the word before he dropped down. Movement caught John's attention and he looked across as Keller inched slowly into the laboratory, crawling the last few feet until she was at John's side and looking into the hole.

"Is he okay?" Keller asked.

John took a breath. "He doesn't think so."

"Maybe I should... " Her breath hitched. "Go down next?"

John looked hard at her, weighing up in his mind the advantages and disadvantages of putting yet another civilian in potential danger. He saw her eyes harden in determination.

John called to the field medic but Griggs must have heard her make the offer as he nodded immediately and stepped out of the harness, beckoning to Keller to come over to him. Once more John had to grit his teeth and watch as someone other than himself put on that harness, but no matter how much he wanted to go down there and comfort his injured lover, he knew he would only be in the way. Griggs fitted the harness around her smaller frame and assisted her carefully towards the edge of the hole.

"Take it easy, Doc. The edge is crumbling and Lieutenant Jorgens will be pissed if he gets a face full of dirt."

"Rodney wouldn't be so pleased either," she quipped, laughing nervously, and John couldn't help but be proud of the way she had stepped up without needing anyone to ask or order.

A few months earlier Keller had been too scared to step out of the infirmary, let alone go off world. It seemed Atlantis was revealing an inner strength in most of those chosen for this expedition, and perhaps it was a testament to Rodney's skill that he had seen the potential in his less experienced personnel when he selected them.

Once she reached the ground below, Griggs sent down the trauma kit, which would contain everything she needed. In the meantime, Jorgens was issuing orders and having more equipment lowered to him. By then Keller had her case open and she was talking to Rodney softly but Rodney kept looking away from her towards him, as if seeking reassurance from John. His eyes seemed almost too big and blue in the light cast by the lamp hanging through the hole. A little while later, he looked even more vulnerable with the cervical collar and a weird vest--that Griggs had called a KED--that would keep Rodney's back rigid in the event of an unknown spinal injury. According to Griggs it would enable them to extract Rodney far more easily than a normal long spine board could allow in such a confined space.

"John?"

"It's okay, buddy. I'm still here." Except John wanted to be down there instead, holding Rodney's hand, and stroking the damp and matted hair from his forehead. Instead, Griggs had joined them in the limited space available, covering two roles as both medic and rescuer.

"You ready?" Jorgens stated as Griggs pushed a flat bag under the last piece of ceiling still pinning Rodney down. He turned to Keller. "Remember, once this inflates it should lift that piece off him. Griggs and I are going to pull him out. Soon as he's clear then you get to work." Jorgens moved, obscuring John's view of Rodney as he spoke calmly to Rodney. "Hey Doc, I want you to remain perfectly still and let me and Griggs do all the work. Okay?"

John could see Rodney nodding as Keller squeezed back against the wall of debris as far as she could to give them a few more inches of space. The next part happened fast, with Jorgens and Griggs working in perfect synchronization, dragging Rodney out into the small space they had cleared before Rodney could even start to cry out in agony. Keller was there immediately, using the sharpest pair of scissors John had ever seen to cut through Rodney's BDU pants like they were made of paper. She and Griggs worked fast to put pressure onto a wound and splint his fractured left leg. It took John a few moments longer to realize that the pain in his own hands came from his fingernails digging into his palms, leaving blood-filled crescents.

Even more interminable minutes passed before they had Rodney stable for the next part of the rescue--lifting him out of the hole. Griggs came up first, followed by Keller and once the rescue team had everything harnessed, they raised Rodney in a semi-seated position, allowing John to see the full effectiveness of the KED supporting his lover's battered frame. Jorgens guided and supported from below. As soon as Rodney was eased to a cleared area in the debris strewn ground, John cupped Rodney's face and kissed his forehead while Keller re-checked Rodney's vitals. He only realized Jorgens had been hauled up on the winch when the man crouched down on the other side of Rodney.

"Colonel, we need to take him out now."

John nodded and pulled back to give Griggs and Sergeant Dietrich room to grab handles on the KED and lift Rodney. "Go."

He resisted the strong desire to follow because he owed it to the rest of his men not to leave any of them behind. Instead he helped pack away the remaining equipment. A radio call confirmed that Evans, Vega and Doctor Cole had assisted the two injured personnel back up to the bridge level and were awaiting further orders.

"Evans, we're on our way up now. Let's get everyone back to the central tower."

"Yes, sir."

For a moment John wished there had been enough room for a jumper but the nearest landing area was on the North Pier. By the time they had carried all the wounded to the pier, they might as well make use of the working transporter system that would have them on the infirmary level in seconds.

John checked around the damaged laboratory. All that was left to do was to help carry out the remainder of the gear used to rescue Rodney and Lorne so no one had to come back for it. Shouldering a heavy pack, John stopped next to Jorgens and helped him with his pack.

"You did good, Lieutenant."

"Thank you, sir."

"Now let's get out of here!"

****

Rodney couldn't remember much of the trip back to his infirmary; probably because Keller had dosed him up with morphine and that had always had a strange effect on him, even in small amounts. His first lucid moment came when John leaned over him, his eyes warm and filled with an emotion Rodney knew was love and affection.

"Hey buddy, how you doing?"

Rodney smiled right back up at him. "You have pretty eyes. So pretty."

John turned to the side, addressing someone just out of view. "Exactly how much of that stuff did you give him?"

Keller sighed. "He was refusing to let me touch his leg, crying out if I so much as breathed near him. It was only a very small dosage because of the head injury."

"All the pretty colors," Rodney sighed as John looked back at him, barely paying attention to anything beyond the green and gold and blue dancing in his lover's eyes. "And a pretty mouth, and all those incredibly wicked things you can do with your tongue and--"

John pressed his fingers over Rodney's lips as someone choked back a laugh. "How about keeping those thoughts between you and me?"

Rodney frowned but then grinned as he felt really good, and John was here, and that was all he needed to be happy. "I love you. You're so pretty."

"Yeah, you too," John whispered and brushed a kiss against Rodney's lips.

Rodney frowned when Keller drew John away. "I'm sorry, Colonel, but we need to set that fracture now."

"Jennifer? Why don't you rest, lass, and let me take care of Rodney."

Rodney recognized Carson's soft burr but he was more confused by John's sudden absence. "Where did John go?"

Carson leaned over Rodney with a strangely lopsided smile that could almost be a grimace except there was a slightly panicked look in his eyes. "Ah! He's gone to... get you some ice cream, Rodney."

"He has?"

"Aye. A big bowl of ice cream. Chocolate. Your favorite."

Rodney grinned because it was the sort of thing John would do for him. "I have the best boyfriend ever."

Carson's eyes lost their shiftiness and warmed with affection, "Aye," and Rodney grinned up at him again as Carson patted him on the shoulder before setting to work, assisted by one of the nurses.

After the fourth time Carson woke him up and asked inane questions while shining a light in his eyes, Rodney was no longer feeling quite so happy. He understood the necessity when a patient had a concussion but he had never been on the receiving end before today--and it sucked. Also, being awake meant being aware of the ache in his head, the throb in his left leg, and the tightness of the cast... and an itch that he couldn't scratch.

When Carson moved off, Rodney grumbled under his breath, and almost jumped out of his skin when a hand dropped onto his shoulder.

"Are you trying to kill me? Because if so then good job, you almost succeeded."

"Someone's grumpy," John replied.

"Someone is tired and in pain," Rodney ground out before clicking his fingers and pointing to where Carson had hung the patient chart up on the wall.

"In case you hadn't noticed, you're the patient here, not the doctor."

"In case you haven't noticed, I can be both."

John sighed loudly but did as Rodney asked when Rodney snapped his fingers again. "You know I hate it when you do that."

"Do what?" Rodney asked, though he was no longer paying that much attention while he flicked through the notes that Carson and Keller had made in his patient record. As much as he hated to admit it, his chart reminded him why he had chosen them for the expedition--they were good at what they did.

"The snapping thing."

"What?"

John clicked his fingers and Rodney took in a surprised breath, instantly seeking John's eyes in abject horror.

"Oh! I didn't... I mean I did but I didn't mean to... "

"Hey, it's okay." John must have seen his distress as he leaned in and kissed Rodney softly. "Just less of the snappy thing, okay?" he whispered as he pulled back and Rodney almost made the mistake of nodding in agreement, catching himself before he worsened his headache. John gave him that special smile that never ceased to make Rodney melt inside. "How about I take that," he took the notes from Rodney's hand, "And you get some more sleep."

"Will you stay?"

John glanced off across the infirmary but Rodney knew the rules as he had imposed them. No visitors after ten except in dire emergencies, and he could hardly call watching him fall asleep an emergency, dire or otherwise.

"Until Carson kicks me out."

Rodney closed his eyes and let himself drift back to sleep with the comforting presence of John's warm hand resting gently on his forearm.

****

"What do you mean you left it behind? As you can see, a bone knitter would come in pretty useful right about now!"

Rodney's voice had carried right across the infirmary and before he knew it, John had agreed to organize a team to retrieve it--though he would need to gain Jack's permission first. Somehow he didn't think that would be a problem though as a bone knitter machine would come in handy. John's main concern was the stability of the bridge between the two towers but he was willing to bet that Jorgens and his engineers would have a solution.

According to Rodney, if the bone knitter machine worked as described in the Ancient database then Rodney would only need a light support cast on the leg and could begin physical therapy immediately--and even that wouldn't be the usual torture session as the bone would be strong and the muscles would not have had time to weaken from lack of use. Plus anything that got Rodney back on his feet and without a cast quicker was well worth checking out, if only for purely selfish reasons.

Carson had released Rodney from the infirmary early yesterday evening, two days after the explosion, allowing Rodney to return to the quarters that they shared. Even though Rodney had slept away most of that evening and right through the following day, John had spent an uncomfortable night with that damn cast catching him on the ankle on at least three occasions, twice while they tried to find a comfortable position while John gave Rodney some pain relief that had everything to do with endorphins rather than morphine. When he wasn't smarting from the pain from being smacked with the cast, John was overcome by the snoring of an exhausted and sated lover, unable to poke Rodney and make him turn over from where he was sprawled on his back with his leg raised on a pillow.

John sighed as a simple retrieval turned into a second outing for the medical technicians. Rodney had insisted that his people could at least complete the exploration of the upper floors if the tower was considered stable enough after that last explosion. Doctor Wagner stepped forward to take the lead, wanting to finish the job she had started only days before.

John folded his arms as Rodney struggled to pull a baggy pair of sweat pants over the cast. "You're not going, Rodney."

"Why?"

John raised an eyebrow and looked pointedly at the cast that went from just above the knee all the way down to encase his foot, leaving only his toes sticking out.

"Because I'm not carrying you across all that debris and up eight flights of stairs," he held up a finger to forestall Rodney, "And neither are my marines."

Rodney sighed hard and gave up on the sweats, falling backwards to sprawl over the top of the bed, already exhausted just from this one attempt to dress himself.

"Fine," but the word held no sting, just resignation.

"Come on, I'll help you get dressed and down to the mess hall."

After breakfast John escorted Rodney back to their shared quarters where his lover was supposed to be resting. He ignored Rodney's griping about the unfairness of it all as he geared up. Once he was ready, John planted a soft kiss on his still grumbling lover before he headed to the gate room where he had planned to meet up with the smaller contingent from the original medical expedition. Jorgens and his team had already gone ahead after a meeting with him, Jack and Zelenka to discuss safety protocols and how it would be better to set up a winch to haul over the machine rather than risk the additional weight on the bridge. Although the machine was considered portable in that it wasn't that bulky, it was still too heavy to be carried by a single person, and John didn't want to trust the weight of more than one person on that bridge with the machine. Silently, he wondered if the Ancients had invented anti-grav sleds, like the ones seen in science fiction movies, as John couldn't quite see one of the Ancients shouldering heavy equipment. He figured he would be one of the first to know if Zelenka's people came across such a device.

By the time they reached the bridge, Jorgens and his men had already set up the winch and were waiting to send people across on John's command. John insisted on going first, picking his way across the debris-strewn bridge carefully. When he reached the other side, he released the safety harness and sent it back for Wagner. Once she was across, John waited for Griggs and together they followed Wagner through the building to where she had been forced to abandon the bone knitter in favor of an emergency evacuation of her team. On the upper levels it was hard to believe that the tower was in any danger of toppling over, and John wondered if it had been built to contain explosions in any of the laboratories in the lower levels. Certainly the machine seemed undamaged and John hefted it between him and Griggs, slowly moving through the clear corridors and down the stairs to the reception level on the eighth floor. They placed it onto a net opened out on the floor, close to the entrance, and John stepped back as Griggs secured the machine and attached it to the winch. Moments later, the machine was suspended between the two buildings and being quickly drawn across to the other side. By this time, Wagner and her team, which included a couple of his marines, had already disappeared up the stairs to carry on where they had left off exploring the other day.

John decided to join them rather than head back to the center of the city with Rodney's 'bone knitter'. Taking the stairs two at a time he headed up three levels. A quick glance on the Life Signs Detector placed them only a few rooms away so he made his way towards them quickly, calling in a warning to say he was about to join them because he didn't relish being shot by his own men. When he entered what looked like a small ward with several beds, he saw the medical technicians huddled over something in the far corner, and his men standing well back from them. John frowned when he realized that whatever had drawn their attention had been activated.

"Thought nobody was supposed to touch anything."

Willis drew back with a stubborn expression--chin jutted out in a way that looked cute on Rodney but arrogant on Willis--and John sighed internally. Rodney had warned him about the man and his need to be first with every find so John should have paid closer attention. It was too late now, though, and everyone stepped back as John approached. He glanced at the machine, thinking hard in the hope of intercepting some clue as to its purpose but felt nothing.

"Any idea what it is?"

"It doesn't seem to do anything, Colonel."

" _Seem_ being the operative word because I don't think the Ancients made it for the pretty light show in the corner."

"Well obviously, Colonel. And if the others would stand back and give me a proper chance to examine it then I might be able to ascertain its purpose," Willis stated airily, gaining some narrow-eyed glares from his colleagues.

"Actually, it's giving out a low level field of radiation." Wagner looked up from her medical scanner. "It's not something I've ever seen before... and I think we should all head back and get checked out."

Willis huffed in annoyance but John nodded in agreement. Although he hated medicals, anything out of the ordinary merited a physical examination in Rodney's books.

"Then I guess we're going to have to pack up and go home."

"What!? You cannot be serious. It's low level radiation. Negligible. You have no right--" Willis exclaimed but John countered swiftly.

"Well maybe if you'd stuck to the safety rules and not touched anything, then you wouldn't have to go back so soon."

"This is outrageous! I'm not going and you can't force me."

"Well I think I can." John flicked his gaze to the closest marine. "Evans, escort Doctor Willis back to the bridge."

"Yes, sir," Evans responded with relish, smiling dangerously at Willis while fondling the P90 attached to his TAC vest. John could see Willis's jaw twitching but the man remained tight-lipped as he walked away with head high and body tense. Raising his eyebrows seemed to motivate the rest of them into moving too and John smiled at the low grumbles. If it turned out that this really was a false alarm then they could reschedule yet another exploration mission, and if the bone knitter machine worked then maybe Rodney would be with them.

****

Negotiating the corridors on crutches was adding to the low-grade throb in his leg but Rodney was too angry to care. Instead it merely shoved his anger up another notch. Rodney knew he should have given Willis something else to do today but he seriously thought Wagner could keep that menace of a man under control.

Willis had not been one of Rodney's choices for this expedition. He had been brought in as a last minute replacement for someone worth twice as much in Rodney's eyes but Doctor Lam had decided to remain at the SGC. In fact, Willis was to Rodney what Kavanagh was to Zelenka; clever in his field but a pompous, arrogant ass who thought he knew better than anyone else.

Rodney was fully aware that the same description might easily have applied to him if he had not had the arrogance knocked out him by life in general. Perhaps if his mother had remained healthy or if his father had stayed and allowed Rodney to focus on his first love, which had been astrophysics, then his whole life might have been different. Perhaps then he might have turned out like Kavanagh and Willis but, instead, his younger years had been filled with the responsibility of caring for his mother, of feeding her and washing her on those days when she refused to help herself. He had learned to put the needs of another before his own and had spent the long hours while she slept researching her illness through textbook after textbook. From the age of ten he had stopped obsessing on the stars and spent hours learning about human anatomy--about how the body worked both mechanically and chemically--gradually losing himself in the living machine where once he had preferred man-made ones. He only started to move on with his own life when the authorities put her into a psychiatric center after she wandered off one time too many--forgetting to dress herself first.

The only time Rodney came across as arrogant as Willis was in his work, and only then because he knew he was a brilliant surgeon, plus he simply couldn't find the right words to offer false hope or deal with people who had become too emotional. His solitary childhood had ill-prepared him for dealing with anyone's emotions beyond his mother, and she was certifiably insane long before the first signs of Alzheimer's had stripped away what was left of her mind. Willis was the opposite to Rodney in that he was able to call upon the social graces to interact more successfully with others outside of work but simply chose not to employ those qualities with his colleagues or patients. His competitive nature forced out the worst in him.

When Rodney reached the infirmary, Carson was already ordering people and staff around, taking blood and checking everyone for any abnormalities. It didn't stop Carson from spotting Rodney the moment he thudded into the room.

"Rodney! You are supposed to be resting."

"With these idiots? About the only good news all day is that they brought back the Bone Knitter."

Carson blinked. "I'm not going to use it on you until I know exactly what it does."

"It knits bones," Rodney ground out.

"Aye! But what else will it do if it's not used properly? It could fuse all the bones inside the knee, or--"

"I haven't exactly been spending all my sudden free time lying around watching episodes of _Doogie Howser MD_ for its mocking potential. I've been studying the machine on the Ancient database and I know exactly how it works... theoretically."

"Aye!" Carson exclaimed. "Theoretically. But you won't be the one operating the bloody thing."

"Then go practice on... on... one of your mice."

"You want me to break the wee creature's leg just so--?"

Rodney held up a hand to stop him even though he knew Carson had no qualms about using his white mice in his research. It was Rodney who got a little squeamish about such things but then most of Rodney's training had been on cadavers, which some might have found even more disturbing than dissecting mice, but at least they were already dead. The rest of his training had come on live bodies in the ER, and the aim there had been to save life and limb; to reconstruct shattered bone, muscle and tissue.

"And what about these idiots?" Rodney flinched slightly at John's raised eyebrow from the bed opposite where a nurse was drawing blood. "No. Not you. I mean the rest of them." He waved a hand about carefully, trying not to overbalance on the crutches.

Carson sighed. "Well, I cannot find a thing wrong with any of them but I've already assigned Doctor Singh to check through the Ancient database. Doctor Wagner brought back some very detailed images of the device." Carson smiled and Rodney sighed, almost hating him for his ability to put even him at ease.

"Good. Singh's a good researcher."

"One of our best."

"But not as good as me so it can't hurt if I research it too. It's not like I have anything better to do right now."

Carson's lips twitched as John clapped a hand down on Rodney's shoulder. "Oh, I can think of something to keep you occupied."

With most of his anger already worked through, Rodney refused to acknowledge the double meaning behind John's comment and glared at Willis instead, but he gained the usual disdainful smirk in response. Rodney wondered what it would take for the man to show a little humility but he suspected that Willis would simply find someone else to blame if anything turned ugly. The man really was an ass. Rodney had a sudden thought. Maybe he should play matchmaker and get Willis together with Kavanagh on the mathematical theory that two negatives could make a positive, except he had a feeling that Willis was as straight as they came.

"I want a full report in one hour," Rodney stated while pointing an accusing finger at Willis. Willis bristled but didn't protest, and Rodney had a feeling that the majority of that report would be whining about the team being pulled out before he could explore any further, especially as Carson could find nothing wrong with any of them. John halted any further thoughts of Willis by squeezing Rodney's shoulder.

"Come on. I hear the mess has more of that pseudo-apple pie."

"Ooh! The ones Teyla traded for on the planet of the zits?"

"Nice image, Rodney."

"Oh! I didn't... I mean that was some serious acne but... " Horrified, Rodney fumbled as he tried to take back his words, and failed miserably.

John gave him an indulgent smirk. "Come on... before O'Neill eats all the pie."

Hours later Rodney wished he'd skipped the pie and started on the research earlier. Of all the stupid things the Ancients could have created, explosive tumors seemed the most inane. By his calculations, Willis would be the first to go boom, and though the thought of no longer having Willis's stupidity to deal with any longer was a big tick in the advantage column, he was still one of Rodney's people. But Rodney's greatest concern was for one other person who had been standing too close to the machine while it was activated: John.

Tapping his radio, Rodney made a call. "Carson. We have a problem."

****

The empty infirmary was not the best place to hold a meeting but Rodney had not wanted to waste time limping on crutches to Jack's office. Let the able-bodied come to him for a change, he thought. The only ones present with him were Jack, Carson, Radek and the on-duty nurse, Marie, as he needed her for what he was planning to do. Daniel was going back through the database entry to ensure they had understood exactly what this exploding tumor machine had done to their people but Rodney's command of Ancient was far better where medical terminology was concerned. He knew he was right about his discovery.

Radek pushed his glasses further up his nose, reminding Rodney how he used to have the same problem with his glasses before the alien farmer corrected his eyesight. It had probably only done it as part of its plan to breed healthy livestock to butcher when the rest of its people arrived for the harvesting but, still, it was one of several good things to come out of that traumatic experience--John being the best.

He brought his attention back to Radek.

"An Ordnance Disposal Team is bringing containers to hold the explosive tumors until they can be neutralized in a controlled explosion." Radek frowned and shook his head. "And that is one sentence I never expected to say out loud."

Rodney snorted because it all sounded like bad dialog from a science fiction B-movie, but they could laugh about it later because, right now, it was no joke. John had been exposed too.

"Carson, I need you to operate the Bone Knitter."

"Do we not have enough to do already, Rodney? I cannot take the risk."

"You have no choice. According to the information found on the database, it takes approximately fourteen hours to convert enough chemicals and minerals from within the body into these explosive tumors. If you average each operation to remove those tumors at thirty minutes per patient... " He let the rest of the sentence hang as Carson could do the math.

Nine people had been exposed to the radiation given out by the machine--six of his people, two marines and John--and all of them now carried tumors behind their lungs that were growing larger with each passing minute. If they were to save any of them before the tumors exploded then they needed to start operating soon. Rodney could name only three members of the medical section who had the necessary skill to perform such delicate surgery in that time scale--and he was one of those three. However, he couldn't operate sitting down and he certainly couldn't operate with a crutch under each arm. If Rodney had read the data on the Bone Knitter correctly, which was a given, then it would take only a matter of minutes to knit the bone sufficiently for him to need only a light support cast while he worked. He could be scrubbed and standing over the first patient in less than twenty minutes.

"It's still doable with just me and Doctor Keller if we let the surgical support team close up--" Carson argued.

"As long as there are no complications! We have two, maybe two and half hours left at best. Do you really want to take that risk?" Rodney snarled in return. Carson had to see that they needed him. He turned to Jack, who had remained silent up until now, but he knew from Jack's grim look that he had already made up his mind.

Jack looked to Carson. "Personally... I don't see that we have much choice here. We need all our best surgeons."

Carson shook his head, unhappy with the decision but he had to know Rodney was right. Even as they discussed this, the rest of the surgical team was preparing the operating theaters and their patients. If they took three patients each then they had a good chance of saving all nine. If Carson and Keller worked alone then there was a greater probability of one of the tumors exploding before it could be removed, and that could prove just as fatal to the operating team as to the patient.

"Then we'd best get cracking!" Carson stated and Rodney grabbed his crutches and limped after him across the infirmary to where the Bone Knitter machine stood ready. Carson paused, uncertain what to do next but Rodney had already worked everything out for him. He had directed Radek on how to attach the device to the body scanner so all that was needed now was for him to lie down on the scanner bed and wait for Carson to activate it. He pointed out the relevant input commands and sequence, making sure Carson knew what to do.

"Use the scanner to find the break... and then let the Bone Knitter pass over the spot."

"Aye, as simple as that!" Carson sounded sarcastic.

"Yes, Carson. It really is as simple as that. The hard part is knowing where to look and using your mind to direct the machine. That's why it needs someone with a little medical knowledge and the gene."

Rodney dropped one crutch and eased himself down, quietly thanking Carson when he lifted his leg for him. Moments later he felt a tingling sensation that increased in discomfort but he had been expecting that. After a few minutes, it faded to little more than a dull throb, which a simple analgesic could handle.

"Bloody hell. It's done it. It's repaired the break!"

"Yes, obviously. Well, we can study the results later, Carson. Now we have people to save. Go!"

Marie fitted the Aircast that would support him over the next couple of hours then took his arm firmly as Rodney sat up and swung his legs over the edge of the scanner bed, tentatively placing both feet on the floor. Between them, Jack and Marie assisted him as he stood up, and Rodney grinned as he stepped forward, feeling only a small increase in the ache.

"Let's get scrubbed up," Rodney grinned at Marie before turning to Jack. "I've already evacuated all non-essential personnel. I plan to instigate Protocol 17 and lock down this level as soon as you leave. It should contain any explosion if... " He let the sentence trail off as both Jack and Radek knew what it would mean.

"Good luck, my friend," Radek shook his hand solemnly, while Jack squeezed his arm.

"Go fix our people."

****

Years spent as a trauma surgeon stood Rodney in good stead as he started the incision on the second of his three patients. He was used to working under pressure, trying to piece back together the shattered body of whatever unfortunate person had been laid on his operating table. He was used to feeling his way through the gore of ruptured or damaged organs and tissue and repairing what he could. He had long come to terms with the fact that he couldn't save everyone, that sometimes people died on his table no matter how hard he tried to save them but he was adamant that this was not going to happen here. Not today.

In contrast to those days in the ER, the first operation had been so clean; cutting into an otherwise healthy body, spreading the ribs and feeling carefully behind the lungs for the tumor. Although the majority of the tumor was unattached to the surrounding tissue, cutting it out had not been easy. It required a steady hand as he had no idea if a single slip of the scalpel would set off the explosive element within it. He held his breath as he drew the plum-sized tumor from the cavity and laid it in a kidney bowl. Just as carefully, he handed the bowl over to the explosives expert waiting in the room behind him. He didn't think he drew his next full breath until after the containment lid closed over the tumor and the whole unit was wheeled away.

The really hard part was seeing his patient whisked away before he had even started to close up but they had two other doctors on staff who could perform basic surgery. Doctors Meili Hwang and Joe Aspen were stationed two levels away in a long abandoned office that had quickly been converted using the portable operating theater, and only the marine posted at the far end of the corridor had the code to activate the transporter to that level. No one else would be able to get in or out until Rodney overrode the lock down.

The first of his patients had been Willis, whose tumor had grown faster than the others, probably because he had insisted on standing over the damn machine rather than back away as soon as it activated. In some respects, Rodney wished they could have left Willis until last because his arrogance was the cause of all this. But Rodney had seen the very real fear in the man's eyes once he realized the machine had primed him as a living bomb.

Until now the Wraith had just been this unknown quantity. The new Atlanteans had yet to come face-to-face with the Wraith but they all knew it was only a matter of time before one of their teams was in the wrong place at the wrong time. So, until now, they had hardly seemed a threat despite the grim history lesson given by a holographic projection of an Ancient who had lived in Atlantis during the siege. This made it all too real. The machine seemed like a last desperate attempt to destroy an enemy that was winning the war--an act of terrorism. It turned people into suicide bombers--ones who would allow themselves to be captured in the hope of causing mass destruction within a Wraith hive or transport ship even though it would kill hundreds, perhaps thousands of other humans in the process.

As for Willis, Rodney could only hope this was the shock therapy that would curb the man's arrogance in future and make him more cautious when dealing with unknown Ancient technology. Perhaps it was a lesson for all of them to learn, military included.

His next patient was one of the marines--Sergeant Mehra.

"How you doing Carson, Jennifer?"

Carson responded first. "I've just finished up on Gerry and sent her on her way to Meili's team for closing. I'll be starting in on Jim Watson as soon as I have the latest scans."

Rodney smiled wryly beneath his surgical mask at Carson's easy nature with his patients. He was probably on first name terms with every single member of the expedition. At least Willis and Gerry Wagner were both out of immediate danger now and with Doctor Hwang's teams. Rodney held the scan up so he could see exactly where the tumor lay, and approximately how big it had been fifteen minutes earlier. Dropping the scan back onto the tray, Rodney made the first incision before slowly peeling back the flesh. He held out the scalpel, waiting for it to be taken from his hand and took the next tool, grateful that he had Marie with him, as she was one of the brightest of the surgical team.

By necessity each of them was working with a reduced team consisting of one surgeon, one assistant and a nurse anesthetist as they only had one fully accredited anesthesiologist on staff. Unfortunately, Doctor Houston was currently under the knife on Jennifer's table.

"Jennifer?"

"Rodney, I'm almost finished on Sally. Handing the tumor over now."

Moments later the room shook under Rodney's feet as a dull boom sounded close by, adding to the slowly increasing throb from standing on the still healing leg but his thoughts were far from his own injuries. The strange blare of the Ancient warning system filled the air and Rodney froze with the instrument in his hand poised above his patient.

"Rodney!"

Rodney recognized John's voice calling out to him frantically over the radio. All he could see in his mind at that moment was John's eyes wide in fear, probably trying to push away the nurse who had volunteered to stay with those still waiting for their operation even though it put her in as much danger as the rest of them. Rodney should have known a light sedative would not be enough to keep John from worrying. He recalled that last brief kiss as he made his way towards the scrub area, aware that if anything went wrong then he might never touch his lover again, might never again feel the way John's lips softened beneath his when they kissed. He had been so focused on John that it had never occurred to him that he might be the one to die this day.

"John, I'm fine. Jennifer! Carson!"

"I'm fine too, Rodney," Carson called out, which left Jennifer.

"Rodney, Carson? We're okay. It was already inside the container and out in the corridor when it exploded, but Sergeant Hales needs medical attention, possible blast injuries."

Rodney closed his eyes and dropped his chin to his chest for a moment before looking back up. "Jennifer, let Doctor Aspen handle the Sergeant. I need you working on the next patient. And people, this isn't _Chicago Hope_. Let's avoid any more drama before I go into cardiac arrest."

"Aye!" Carson laughed nervously.

Rodney knew this had shaken all of them, making each of them more aware than ever that they faced a very real possibility of dying alongside their patient especially as the ordnance unit had barely contained the worst of the blast. He looked kindly at each of his assistants in turn, trying to reassure them and waiting until they had regained their composure before taking a deep breath and starting back in on his patient. The rest of this operation went smoothly and within another twenty minutes he was handing off the tumor to his personal--and now far more cautious--explosives expert. Rodney continued to work until the latest container had cleared the area and someone came in to whisk Mehra off in the opposite direction to Hwang's team.

One more to go, and though it had almost killed him to make this decision, he knew it would not be John lying on his table next. Instead he had entrusted his lover to Carson or Jennifer's skillful hands because Rodney knew he needed to remain professional, and that would be hard when he knew John's body almost as well as his own. His fingers and lips had grazed every inch of John's flesh with a lover's caress. He knew every scar, every mole and freckle, every imperfection, and loved all of him.

The sense memory from last evening was still so strong, recalling how he had lain sprawled on his back with his left leg raised on a pillow while John leaned over him. He could remember the heat of John's mouth engulfing him; the slide of tongue and of teeth grazing his sensitive flesh as John took him higher, drawing him slowly to the edge and then taking him over, swallowing every drop of his release. He didn't want to replace that memory with the sight of a scalpel cutting into his lover's body. It was bad enough that he knew every one of the people he had doctored since arriving in Atlantis--if not personally then at least in passing--causing him to recall how much easier it had been to work in an ER with its constant stream of strangers.

Even Sergeant Mehra was a familiar face, recalling the marine's embarrassment when she needed stitches after sparring with their new Athosian ally, Teyla. Rodney had been on call that evening and he remembered the soft, "thanks, Doc," before Mehra slunk away.

His last patient arrived and Rodney recognized Doctor Xiang, their microbiologist who doubled as an Orthopedic surgeon. Xiang had originally set Rodney's leg and if Xiang had possessed the ATA gene then he would have been Rodney's first choice in examining and testing out the Bone Knitter. Rodney fully intended for Xiang to have that opportunity in the future, once Carson had figured out how to give the ATA gene to the fifty-two percent of humans who didn't have the marker gene. Though hopefully, Rodney would never need the Bone Knitter again.

After checking the most recent scans, Rodney set to work, heaving a sigh twenty minutes later when the tumor was wheeled away. This time his patient would stay with him as Rodney closed up.

"Carson? Jennifer?"

Jennifer replied first. "Rodney, I'm about to remove the tumor. John's vitals are good and steady."

"Good. Good." He tried to push his fears aside but even knowing that his lover was in capable hands was barely enough to comfort him. From personal experience he knew that anything could go wrong. The tumor could explode before Jennifer removed it, or before it reached the containment unit. Jennifer might miss a bleeder or John could get a post-op infection. The human body was so fragile.

"Rodney, if you can be spared then I could use your assistance with Doctor Stevens. The tumor has connected itself to the aorta."

"On my way." Rodney turned to Marie. "Send Xiang to Doctor Hwang's team... .and both of you," he took in Marie and Nurse Hegla, "Good work."

He stripped off his surgical gloves and walked away briskly in case either of his team became emotional. The one thing he still had trouble coping with since his minor breakdown in the ER was emotional people. Once he reached Carson's operating room, Rodney scrubbed quickly and grabbed a fresh sterile pair of gloves from the holder before approaching. Trauma and Vascular surgery were his areas of expertise, dealing with damaged arteries and shattered bodies. Carson moved aside, quickly following his lead.

"We don't have much time but as long as I can keep the adventitia intact and the aorta contained," Rodney murmured, "We can repair once I've removed the tumor."

"Aye. My thoughts too. I'll start prepping."

Rodney worked quickly, aware that if he cut too deep then he could rupture the aorta but, judging by the size of the tumor, he needed to remove all of it within the next few minutes or everyone in this room was dead.

"No pressure," he murmured to himself, slicing carefully. Carson worked quickly, with neither of them wanting to waste any time in case the worst happened. As the last piece of connective tissue peeled away from the tumor, Rodney lifted the tumor out of the cavity. It was huge and Rodney knew it was only minutes, perhaps even seconds away from exploding. Rather than waste any more time placing it into the kidney bowl for the explosive expert to deal with, Rodney carried it across the room, his eyes meeting Griggs and getting a nod from him as Griggs opened the unit and indicated where to put the organic bomb. Griggs started to move immediately while Rodney turned back to his patient. Part of him was already anticipating the explosion so when it came he found he had already braced himself and his patient, riding out the shaking of the room as the containment unit and the closed door to the operating theater took the brunt of the blast.

Part of him wondered how Griggs had fared. He liked Griggs, but he knew he had to push him out of mind and let Aspen's team handle any blast injuries. His other concern was still for John, and for one terrible moment he worried that it was John's tumor that had exploded before it could be contained rather than the one he had handed over to Griggs. He forced the sick feeling aside, aware that he had to focus on the man on his operating table.

"Carson?"

"Preparing graft."

Once the artery was repaired, and Rodney was certain it would hold, he began closing up, working in silence until the last suture was in place. He stood over the operating table, unmoving as the rest of the post-op procedures were carried out, too afraid to make that vital call to Jennifer.

Carson took off his gloves and pulled off one side of his surgical mask as Stevens was wheeled away; he rested his hand on Rodney's forearm.

"I took the liberty of taking the rest of the radio calls on a different channel so you could concentrate."

Rodney pulled away his own mask and stared across the operating table at him, still unable to say out loud the question that was stuck in his throat.

"John came through just fine. Jennifer finished closing him up half an hour ago and sent him to recovery." Carson smiled broadly and indicated towards the operating table. "That was an exceptional piece of work, Rodney."

"Nothing you couldn't have handled."

Carson smiled even wider at the compliment. "Come on. I don't know about you but I could use a stiff drink, and I have a twenty-two year-old Glenrothes in my bottom drawer. Would you care to partake of a wee dram?"

"I need to check on... on John first."

"Aye, I know. I'll be waiting."

Rodney pulled off his gloves and disposed of them before leaning hard on the operating table and bending his head over in exhaustion. He spent a few more minutes changing out of his bloodied surgical scrubs and taking a quick shower before pulling on the fresh set of scrubs laid out for him.

Ten beds were occupied in the recovery ward, the additional one for the marine who had been caught in the first blast. Griggs had been far luckier and had managed to take cover when the container's alarm indicated a build up of pressure or gases that warned that the explosion was imminent.

Rodney crossed the room and stood beside one particular bed, looking down at his lover before checking the monitors. Once he was sure John was simply sleeping, he leaned in, picked up one hand and pressed a kiss into the palm. He leaned in again and brushed away some of the messy dark hair so he could kiss him gently on the forehead.

"I... love you," he whispered, and then felt embarrassed by his proclamation even though it was unlikely that anyone heard him--not even John.

When he reached the genetics laboratory where Carson kept a small office, Rodney was not surprised to see a small crowd had gathered. Carson grinned and pulled out another specimen cup, splashing a finger of his precious scotch whisky into the bottom and handing it to Rodney.

"To the new bomb squad," Carson stated as he lifted his cup in a toast. Rodney raised his alongside the other medical staff who had performed as surgical teams today, placing their lives in danger to save nine walking time bombs.

"To us," Marie answered and they all took a sip.

****

The infirmary was quiet when Rodney returned an hour later, with only two nurses stationed inside in case any of their ten patients required assistance. He nodded to them as he crossed the floor to where John slept. On Earth, the type of operation John had undergone could take up to three months for a full recovery but here in Atlantis they had access to technology that was far beyond conventional hospital equipment. The Bone Knitter had shaved weeks off of his own recovery, and other Ancient devices would reduce the time it took for John and the others to heal. _Reduce_ being the operative word as it was not a complete fix. Rodney would still have to take care for a few weeks and attend physical therapy to strengthen his leg, and John would still need to take it easy for a few weeks too. The important thing was that they would heal. All of them.

He and Carson had agreed that they would start the next part of the healing process tomorrow, as any of the medical staff capable of using the Ancient technology were either exhausted or injured. Or both in his case.

Rodney sank into the chair beside John's bed and rubbed at his throbbing leg, feeling the slight tremors of fatigue but it wasn't just his leg that was tired. The last few hours had taken their toll on him and all he really wanted to do now was slide into the bed beside John, wrap him up safely in his arms, and sleep. He had a strong feeling that the nurses would object even if Rodney was the CMO of the expedition. With one last sigh, Rodney pushed up to his feet, brushed a kiss across John's forehead and limped away hoping he would be too tired to miss John in their bed tonight.

****

**Three Weeks Later:**

Lorne grumbled under his breath as he followed Parrish through the moonlit forest. "Come to Atlantis. See strange new worlds and seek out new ways to protect the Earth from alien farmers intent on harvesting us all."

Parrish seemed slightly affronted that Lorne couldn't see the possibilities of saving the Earth by studying the effects of severe ozone depletion on plant life. Lorne had to admit that he had a different viewpoint as the Earth would go on quite happily, in just the same way as this planet. The only difference was that it would be just as devoid of higher life forms as this world. The only thing man was destroying on Earth by burning fossil fuels, increasing the carbon footprint, and damaging the ozone layer was himself. Lorne guessed that was the difference between those who studied the life sciences and others, like him, who preferred to study inanimate objects such as rocks. But he guessed Parrish had a point because if humans did destroy themselves by damaging their environment then it kind of negated any need to discover ways to protect them from any more alien farmers.

As Parrish rushed ahead to the next plant of interest, Lorne sighed. He really should have left this detail to another SGA team but, in truth, he had been going stir crazy on Atlantis. He liked Colonel Sheppard. The man was a good commanding officer, never asking more of his men than he was also willing to give, but three weeks of bed rest and light duty had Sheppard climbing the walls. Sheppard was bored, and Lorne could only be grateful that McKay had reduced the healing time from months to weeks using Ancient medical technology; otherwise Lorne might have had an insubordination black mark slapped into his permanent record by now.

"Major!"

The urgency in Parrish's voice had Lorne rushing over, P90 at the ready. Looking down, he saw the body lying at Parrish's feet and he leaned over to check if the creature was alive or dead. Definitely dead, he thought, judging by the hole in its belly.

"Do you think this is a Wraith?"

Lorne stared hard at the humanoid creature, noting the long white hair, greenish pallor to its skin and the ugly, razor sharp teeth bared in a rictus of death. With the snub end of his P90 Lorne pushed over its hand and saw the strange orifice in its palm.

"Yeah. It's just like Teyla described, right down to the facial tattoos." He straightened and tapped his radio, grabbing Parrish's arm and drawing him away even as Lorne spoke to the marine left guarding the Stargate. "Open the gate to Atlantis. I need to report a finding."

"But the creature?"

"Was shot recently so whoever did it might still be around."

***

"Unscheduled off-world activation." Chuck turned partially in his seat as Jack walked over slowly. "Sir, it's Major Lorne's IDC."

Jack frowned because Lorne wasn't due to check in for another two hours. He indicated to Chuck to open a channel.

"Major? This is General O'Neill."

"Sir, Doctor McKay left standing orders... Sir, I think we've found a dead Wraith."

Jack sighed. Ever since they heard of the Wraith from the Ancient holograph, they had been half-anticipating, half-dreading this moment. According to Teyla, the Wraith were in hibernation with just a few scouting parties going to inhabited planets every few years to grab a snack. She had lost her father to such a raid only five years earlier. As CMO of the expedition, Rodney had demanded that the off-world teams notify him if they found any Wraith tissue samples. A whole body certainly fit that description. And then some, he thought wryly.

By now Sheppard had joined him, eager to get back into action after spending several weeks recuperating from open surgery.

"Major Lorne, send Doctor Parrish back through to Atlantis and then wait near the gate. We'll be there in fifteen." Jack barely waited for Lorne's acknowledgment before turning to Sheppard. "Know your enemy," he stated, and Sheppard nodded before tapping his radio to contact Rodney, not needing a formal order to tell him Jack had given Rodney the green light to go off-world and investigate Lorne's find.

"McKay. Get your gear together. We've found you some fresh Wraith road kill," John drawled.

"What? Seriously?"

"Yeah. Fifteen minutes or they're heading out without you."

"I'll be there."

Jack smiled grimly because he knew Rodney would not be late even if he had to trample on a few toes--or egos--to get there on time. Sure enough when Jack glanced at his wristwatch fifteen minutes later, Rodney was struggling into the gate room with a heavy medical kit followed by a harried looking Carson Beckett carrying even more equipment.

"I'm assuming you won't let us bring the whole body back to Atlantis," Rodney stated when Jack raised an eyebrow at the amount of kit the two men were carrying between them. He noticed that neither doctor batted an eyelid at seeing him dressed for off-world and carrying a P90.

Jack snorted. "Not a chance, Doc!"

Jack knew it would be too dangerous in case the Wraith were fitted with subcutaneous transmitters. So far Atlantis had avoided advertising its presence to the Wraith, though Jack knew they were living on borrowed time in that respect. The more treaties and trades they made in Pegasus, the greater the chance that someone would reveal their recent occupation of the city and bring the Wraith to their door step. Teyla had hinted at the Wraith being long-lived and having almost miraculous healing powers that they gained and enhanced by sucking the life force out of humans. It made them very hard to kill even with the more powerful weapons available to the expedition when compared to the low technology within Pegasus. If Rodney was not so insistent that studying Wraith regenerative properties could provide them with a greater understanding of their potential enemy's strengths and weaknesses, then Jack would have recalled everyone from that planet immediately and locked its address out of the database just to be extra safe.

Sheppard indicated for two of the ten marines present to grab the heavier case between them, leaving Rodney and Carson splitting the rest of the load. He glanced furtively towards Rodney, who was busy organizing the weight distribution between him and Carson, licking his lower lip as he turned to Jack.

"You know I'm fit to return to full duty. I should lead this away mission."

"Well, McKay says different."

"He's being... over protective."

"The answer's no. He has wide-bored needles and enemas, and for someone who was so timid when I first met him, he's not afraid to use either to get his point across over who's in charge, medically speaking."

Sheppard's expression hardened but Jack knew it was nothing personal. He had been expecting this conversation from the moment the possibility of Rodney going off-world arose because Rodney was not the only one over protective in that relationship. Hell, Jack had a feeling he was going to get an equal amount of aggravation from Daniel when he got back, especially as Daniel had yet to be informed about the dead Wraith.

"Jack, I need it to be me. Ask any other doctor and they'd pass me fit for this."

Jack looked hard at him but he could see it was the truth. He had seen Sheppard practicing his fighting techniques with Teyla only a few hours earlier, and the fact that she beat him was more a testament to her incredible skill with bantos sticks than Sheppard's physical fitness. Sheppard must have seen the moment Jack relented as his shoulders relaxed.

Sighing, Jack unclipped his P90 and handed it to Sheppard. "Do it... but if McKay is pissed, that's your problem."

"I'll deal with Rodney." John gave another furtive glance in Rodney's direction. "If we encounter any more of these Wraith then we'll head to the beta site and contact Atlantis from there."

Sheppard looked to Chuck and the gate technician started the dialing sequence. The forming wormhole never ceased to fascinate Jack as the vortex plumed out from the Stargate before settling back, rippling with the flows and eddies of the fluctuating event horizon. By the time he looked back at his men, Sheppard had commandeered a TAC vest and was readying the P90 clipped to it. Rodney was still fussing over his equipment so he had not yet noticed the change in the military leader, and Jack wished he could be a fly on that wall when Rodney finally realized that John was off-world with him.

****

John stepped through the gate, exiting into the night cycle of a planet thousands of light years distant from Atlantis to find Lorne waiting for him.

"Where is it?" Rodney demanded as soon as he spied Lorne, and if he had not been carrying heavy bags then John would bet Rodney would have been bouncing on the balls of his feet like an impatient toddler. He had a feeling he would be hearing, 'Are we there yet?' more than once during the--hopefully--short trek through the forest.

"And what are you doing here?"

Sending a small glare in Rodney's direction, John almost smiled when Lorne simply raised both eyebrows and with a horrified expression, looked to John for guidance. For a moment he pitied Lorne as no one liked to get between Rodney and the person he was about to berate, even if it was their CO.

"Lead the way, Major."

"Sir."

Rodney moved up beside John, lips tight with annoyance. "I didn't give you permission to go off-world."

John glanced sideways at him as they moved off after Lorne. "I know you had a scare with the tumor but you can't coddle me, Rodney. I have a job to do. We both do, and at times it's a dangerous job." He looked ahead at Lorne's back and bit back a grin as he raised his voice a little. "And between you and me, I think Lorne was planning a coup if I didn't get back on duty soon."

Sure enough, Lorne's shoulders stiffened slightly before they relaxed and he shook his head slightly. Rodney sighed hard and nodded when John squeezed his shoulder.

"We'll talk about this later."

Rodney dropped back to walk with Carson leaving John to catch up with Lorne. Behind him, John could hear Rodney and Carson start up a debate back and forth about radiation levels, and neither of them sounded happy.

"Colonel Sheppard?"

"Doctor Beckett?" He responded, using a formal title to match Carson's, slowing to let the two doctors catch up with him.

"According to readings taken by Doctor Parrish, exposure to harmful radiation during the daylight rotation of this planet is at unacceptable levels."

"Doctor Parrish said it should be safe as long as we don't stay out in the sun too long," John stated but was not surprised when Rodney snarked back.

"Oh, and Doctor Parrish has a degree in what exactly? Oh yes. Botany."

"Point taken." John winced and glared back at Rodney. "And your other point is... ?"

Rodney bristled. "If we need to work through the daylight hours then I would suggest hazmat suits for all personnel."

"Hazmat suits. You do know how hot it gets in those suits?"

Rodney jutted out his chin. "Obviously they're not ideal... and can be a little... cumbersome, but better that than the alternative of suffering a slow, agonizing death by radiation sickness."

"Well, then let's hope you can finish this autopsy before sunrise in that case," John retorted.

"Colonel?" Lorne called out.

John moved up to him quickly, looking down at the body half hidden in the undergrowth. It was definitely humanoid in outward appearance but alien in all other ways. He stepped back as the two doctors set down their equipment and started talking excitedly, not wanting to see what they did to the body. Instead John turned and ordered the guards to set up a perimeter just in case this Wraith had some friends come looking for it and to clear the area for the doctors to work in. When he next looked back, Rodney and Carson had a translucent enclosure set up but he grimaced and turned away as he saw their silhouettes start to work on the body.

Alien autopsies had never been his thing.

A tense hour later, Carson popped his head outside the enclosure.

"Colonel, would some of your men kindly help me take these samples back to Atlantis?"

John nodded and ordered two men to assist. "Major Lorne, your team can escort the Doc back and get SGA-3 to relieve you."

"Yes, sir."

After Lorne had left with Carson, John moved up closer to the enclosure. "Rodney! How much longer you going to be? Daylight is in twenty minutes."

"Almost finished," came the muffled voice from within the enclosure and John sighed because if Rodney was working to the same timetable as Daniel Jackson then it could be another hour--or more if he could get away with it.

"Just remember that dawn means agonizing death by radiation," he sent back sweetly, and could swear he heard a squeak of fear followed by more frantic activity. He grinned to himself because it was so much fun teasing Rodney.

Twenty minutes later the enclosure was down, along with the bright lights that had been set up for Rodney and Carson. What remained of the Wraith's body was in a hole John had ordered dug an hour earlier, though John wished he had brought a Zat gun along as it would have been less problematical to simply shoot it three times to incinerate the body, destroying any remaining evidence. As two of his men finished burying the remains, John glanced towards Rodney and felt his innards melt at the beautiful sight.

The planet was hot even at night so Rodney was sweating and looking exhausted from the intense work inside the even hotter enclosure, but now he was standing with his eyes closed and face lifted into the small early morning breeze. Light from the waning single moon had caught his upturned face, softening his features and making his skin glow with the sheen of perspiration; his eyes snapped open.

"Well? What are we waiting for?"

"Cleaning up the mess you left behind, Rodney."

"Oh. Why didn't you bring along a Zat? Well, too late now I suppose. Carry on. I'll just wait over here on this tree stump." He indicated towards the outline of the stump in question and wandered off a few feet. John shook his head and watched him go, still mesmerized by the ethereal beauty of the man he had taken as his lover and companion... until Ford pulled his attention away.

"Sir. We're done here."

John looked up, not needing to check his wristwatch to know it was dawn for he could see the horizon brightening, shedding a green-gray light into the clearing made by his men earlier.

"We'd best head back before McKay breaks out that home-made coconut sunscreen and insists on us all wearing it," he teased, enjoying the way everyone except Rodney wrinkled up their nose at the thought.

They were most of the way back but still just inside the forest when the Stargate activated. From the edge of the forest, John watched as the men guarding the gate took cover. As soon as the wormhole settled, three needle-nosed craft came through with engines making a high-pitched whine.

From their design, they had to be Wraith darts.

The gate shut down behind them immediately, which meant they didn't expect to find anyone here worth eating, but it also made him wonder why they were here at all in that case. However, it meant John had two options open to him. First he could wait it out. As long as the dead Wraith didn't have some kind of locator beacon still embedded in it that would lead its kind to its remains then, hopefully, the Wraith would find nothing here of any value and they would leave.

His other option was to take advantage of the Wraith being occupied elsewhere, get to the Stargate and dial up the beta site. He decided on the second option because if they did locate that body then they would know someone had killed and autopsied it very recently, and they would come back to the gate looking for them.

For the second time he cursed himself for not bringing a Zat.

"Markham, dial up the beta site and prepare to lay down covering fire. We're coming in hot."

He didn't need to mention the standing order that they could not afford for anyone to be taken by the Wraith alive. Teyla had told them the Wraith hibernated only when their human prey became too low in population to sustain them all. If the Wraith learned of the billions of humans inhabiting Earth and the Milky Way then they would all wake. And that could prove disastrous for both galaxies, for he had a strong suspicion the alien farmer discovered on Earth would not be the only creature ringing the dinner bell and inviting all its friends round for a feast on human flesh--or life force in this case.

"Go! Go! Go!"

Partway across the wild meadow leading to the Stargate, one of the darts returned. A bright light beamed down from it and, suddenly, there were seven muscular creatures wearing full-face, bone-type masks standing between them and the Stargate. It took John half a clip to take down a single Wraith soldier, firing continuously. Stackhouse went down, hit in the chest by the beam from the Wraith's weapon and John cursed because he knew from Teyla that the man was only stunned. They needed to either carry him through the gate or kill him themselves where he lay.

"John!"

Rodney's cry had him whipping around in time to see an injured Wraith advancing on his lover. The stun blast hit Rodney full in the face and he went down hard. John started towards him but the Wraith was closing in on Rodney too fast. He saw it lean down and tear open Rodney's shirt, saw it raise its feeding hand, intending to replenish its ebbing life force with Rodney's, but John was still too far away.

"Rodney!" he yelled, firing even though he knew the Wraith was out of range.

The red flash against the Wraith made John freeze, and then it was toppling backwards away from Rodney. From the forest, a large dirty, dread-locked figure appeared but he wielded the blaster with amazing skill, taking out another of the Wraith before hauling Rodney up over his shoulder in one smooth movement. Their eyes met across the battlefield and John saw the man nod.

"Go!" John yelled as he helped Markham get Stackhouse supported between them.

They raced across the remaining open ground and John let go of Stackhouse, letting Markham's momentum take them through the Stargate. He jumped through only once he was certain that all his men were accounted for, yelling, "Close it down!"

Silence filled the air, broken only by the harsh breathing of the soldiers. Leaving Stackhouse in Markham's care, John moved straight to where the stranger was laying Rodney down on the ground. He forced back the urge to drop to his knees and check Rodney personally, choosing to watch the stranger warily.

"I want to thank you--"

Dark eyes captured his. "Suggest you go and don't come back here."

John frowned, tensing at the coldness in the man's eyes. "Any particular reason?"

The man stared hard at John. "I'm a runner."

"A runner?"

The hardness morphed into confusion. "I'm a runner. The Wraith put a tracking device into me so they could hunt me for sport. They'll track me here."

The very thought of these creatures hunting men for sport sickened John. "We have doctors. Maybe they can remove it."

"Doctors have tried. Still got it."

"Our doctors are better." John knew he was bragging but he had yet to see any civilization left in Pegasus that could match the skill of Rodney, Carson and other doctors on Atlantis.

"He one of them?" The man indicated towards Rodney.

"Yeah. The best," John replied cautiously.

"Thought so, 'cause he's no soldier."

"Once this stun wears off he can try--"

"Still got to move. One of them might have seen the gate address."

John nodded, slightly annoyed at himself as he should have considered that possibility. "Ford, dial up... the omega site."

The omega site was a last resort because it had large blue and red bugs that had almost cost him his life on one of the early missions when it latched onto his neck and started sucking his life force out of him. Teyla had told them that it would continue to feed until John was dead and Rodney had taken her words seriously. Those words had saved his life because Rodney had thought out of the box on that one, deliberately killing John with the paddles before restarting his heart once the creature believed its host was dead and had loosened its grip.

Of course the damn thing had refused to die even after Ford emptied his hand gun into it. Instead it had gone for Rodney next but, fortunately, Teyla pinned it to the ground with a sharp stick, giving them time to gate back to Atlantis. John wasn't keen on going back to Bug World but he didn't want to compromise any of their other safe worlds.

Rodney had a theory that the Wraith were related to the bugs in some way, especially as Teyla had also indicated that the Wraith seemed to have a hive mentality with a queen, drones and soldiers. John figured they had met some of the soldiers today--those large creatures wearing full face-masks.

"Come with us."

The man looked away and John could see he was torn, knowing he would be placing them in danger for as long as that tracker gave away his location. John used that knowledge against him.

"At least let us take a look at that tracker. See if we can remove it."

The man stared hard for a moment longer before nodding. As soon as the wormhole stabilized, they quickly moved through, leaving nothing behind.

****

Rodney groaned low as he forced open his eyes, blinded momentarily by the overhead lights of the infirmary.

"John? I can't move," he tried to say but what he heard was almost gibberish because his mouth seemed as frozen as the rest of him, with his lips too numb to feel. "John? What happened?" His vision cleared a little more and he realized it was Carson rather than John standing beside the bed. "Carson?"

Carson frowned, clearly trying to decipher his words. "What... happened? OH! What happened!" Carson smiled. "You got hit by a Wraith stun weapon, Rodney. I have it on good authority that this will wear off in another hour. Of course it would have been sooner but you took the full brunt of the shot in the face, according to Colonel Sheppard, and that does seem to concur with the symptoms you displayed when we brought you in."

"Where's John?"

"Where's... ? Oh! John! Aye. He's fine, Rodney. He's still on what Lieutenant Ford quaintly calls Bug World."

"Bug World?"

"Aye, with Ronon."

"Ronon? Who's Ronon?" Although the words were too mangled to sound even remotely like what he was trying to say.

Carson looked at him in bemusement. "You should rest," he stated warmly before patting his leg and moving away.

"Carson? Carson! Who's Ronon?" But Carson carried on away to deal with another patient, leaving Rodney all alone. "Am I drooling?" he asked as he felt something sticky and wet running down his chin and neck, but no one answered.

The pins and needles started ten minutes later, building slowly and almost verging on painful as his nervous system rebooted and took stock of any potential damage. At least he had regained some movement now so he was able to flex his fingers and toes a little to relieve the sensation. After another twenty minutes that seemed like a life time, he was able to lift his head properly and wipe away the drool, just in time for a visitor.

"Daniel."

"Rodney. Sorry, I would have come sooner but Jack only just told me you woke up." He frowned as Rodney, with a grimace, stretched out the leg that had just started to spasm. When Daniel reached out and started massaging Rodney's calf muscle, the relief was enough to make Rodney groan almost obscenely, gaining a surprised look from Daniel. "That bad?"

"Yes. It's that bad. Don't stop! Please don't stop!"

Daniel shook his head but carried on. "I've just finished a first pass through the rest of the database entries on your medical tower. The Ancients were carrying out a lot of experiments over there and judging by some, the exploding tumors were the least of our problems."

"What else?"

"They were working down two paths. First, a means to annihilate the Wraith... who turn out to be the result of a failed experiment into longevity and ascension. Oh, and you were right. Those Iratus bugs share DNA with the Wraith."

"Well that bug came back to bite them in the ass," Rodney added.

"Unfortunately, yes. They had several genetics laboratories and they were also playing around with nanotechnology. Replicators."

Rodney groaned. "I should have guessed they'd be involved in that too." He sighed, recalling all the SGC reports on the Replicators in the Milky Way. "And the second?"

Daniel paused in his massage of Rodney's other calf muscle. "Ascension. Not everyone had the time to sit back and meditate all day long, so they were looking for a means to fast track the process. They created an ascension device. It should still be down there."

Rodney perked up at that but then narrowed his eyes, reading the look on Daniel's face. "And the bad news?"

"I think it might have been in the laboratory that collapsed on top of you," he murmured.

Rodney closed his eyes in dismay. "The genetics lab I marked down for Carson to investigate." He opened them again, deciding to change the subject. "Is John still on Bug World?"

Daniel stilled his hands and frowned but his momentary confusion cleared. "Oh, the world full of Iratus bugs." He nodded. "Yes. He's waiting for you to recover so you can go take a look at this Ronon who saved your life."

Now it was Rodney who was confused. "Saved my life? How?"

"I'm... not sure exactly."

If this Ronon had saved his life then it was little wonder John had taken a special interest in the man, though why John had to be absent now--during Rodney's recovery--was a major annoyance. There was a certain part of his anatomy that could really use a good massage right now, and it was not a part that he wanted Daniel to take in hand. Of course he could take care of the problem himself once his right hand felt a little less numb, but that was not the point.

What he couldn't quite understand was why his chest hurt too.

Daniel rushed off a few minutes later, leaving Rodney to finish re-acquainting himself with his nervous system alone. He pulled back the light cover and tentatively put his feet on the cool floor, slowly putting his weight on them. Once he was certain that he wasn't going to fall on his ass, he started moving around, stretching his body and rubbing tingling spots wherever he could reach until he felt almost normal again in most places.

Gathering up the fresh clothes that someone had thoughtfully left for him, he took careful steps as he made his way to the small bathroom and closed the door behind him, thinking it locked to avoid any embarrassing interruptions. He stripped off the bottom half of the scrubs. It was a relief to wrap his hand around his hard erection, with the solid pressure easing the awful tingling that danced along far too sensitive nerve endings. With smooth, sure strokes he let his thoughts dwell on John as he worked himself to a slow but desperately needed climax, sighing with relief as the sensation of release swept over him and calmed down his whole body. Rodney let his head fall back against the wall behind him as the last tremors racked his body, waiting until his breathing slowed before cleaning up efficiently. He pulled off the scrub top and pulled on his clothes, almost immediately disliking the way his clothes rubbed against still sensitive skin. A knock on the door made him startle.

"Rodney? Are you in there?"

He sighed and opened the door, glaring at Carson before slowly walking back towards the bed to gather up his radio. "Obviously, Carson."

"Tetchy! Colonel Sheppard is waiting for you on the planet. I took the liberty of preparing a wee surgical kit for you."

"Surgical kit?"

"To remove the tracking device."

Rodney blinked in confusion, wondering if he had missed a conversation somewhere because he did not have a clue what Carson was going on about. Except if this tracking device needed a surgeon then it had to have been implanted in someone's body.

"Is there any reason why you couldn't have handled this while I was stunned into oblivion?"

"Not really, except for a certain Colonel who insisted that I remain beside the aforementioned stunned into oblivion Chief Medical Officer, who also happens to be the Colonel's partner." Carson sighed. "And I did not want to send Jennifer to look at this tracking device alone as we don't know exactly what we are dealing with here."

Rodney had narrowed his eyes in confusion at John's over-protectiveness as, usually, that only came about if he felt Rodney was in mortal danger. He grabbed his patient notes off the hook and quickly flicked through them.

"I stopped breathing?" That certainly explained the soreness in his chest and he wondered who had performed CPR, and then decided he really didn't want to know.

"You took the full brunt of that stunner blast in the face, Rodney. It messed with your autonomic nervous system but fortunately it had stabilized by the time we got you breathing again."

"I thought Teyla said they stun to keep the victims alive?"

"Aye, they do... and you were still alive when the Wraith soldier prepared to feed on you."

"What! I was nearly fed on by a Wraith?" Rodney exclaimed, horrified at the very thought of having the life sucked out of him the way Teyla had described.

"Did I not mention that this Ronon saved your life?"

"Yes, but you didn't mention he saved me from almost being sucked dry by a Wraith!"

Carson patted his shoulder as Rodney plastered a hand against his sore chest, trying to recall if he had seen any strange feeding marks like Teyla had also described. He pulled the collar of his t-shirt out and tried to look down but could see nothing that indicated that the Wraith had come even close to feeding off him, though he did have some spectacular bruises from the CPR.

"If you're ready, Rodney. I think the Colonel would like to get that tracker removed from Ronon before the Wraith track the poor man to the planet."

"Wraith!"

Everything started to make sense, from the dead Wraith found on radiation world to the urgency now. If the Wraith were hunting this Ronon using the tracking device then sooner or later they would find him on Bug world... and John with him. He grabbed the kit and hobbled to the door on still tingling legs, stopping when he realized Carson wasn't following.

"Why are you still standing there?"

****

To say Ronon was intimidating would be an understatement. The man looked more like a huge caveman with his ratty dreadlocks, grimy face and ragged leather clothing. His eyes followed Rodney as he stepped into the clearing, tracking him as Rodney put down his equipment and looked around for a suitable place for Ronon to lie down because there was no way he would be able to work on him otherwise. There was a flattish rock just off center and though it wouldn't be that comfortable, Rodney decided it would have to do.

"Um... if you wouldn't mind taking off those rags and... " the growl made him falter, "... and lying down on your stomach over there."

"No. I'll sit."

"Well, sitting is good too," Rodney answered weakly, throwing out his previous notion of it being an impossible task unless Ronon was horizontal, because he didn't want to argue with this huge man even though John was standing barely five feet away. The angle would make it far more difficult but he would manage nonetheless. Rodney took out a syringe and prepared a local anesthetic while Ronon shrugged out of his ragged leather shirt, but Ronon shoved Rodney's hand away when he came close with the needle.

"What? You'll let me cut into your back with a scalpel but you won't let me give you a tiny injection first to numb the area? It's not like I'm planning to knock you out!"

Ronon glared at him.

"Seriously, you'll feel a tiny pinch and a numbing sensation localized around the... " Rodney gaped at the scarring, horrified at the mess. "Don't tell me you tried to take it out yourself?"

"Tried."

"And failed miserably!"

Still feeling faintly horrified, Rodney fell silent while gathering his thoughts. He moved around until he was facing Ronon, drawing upon the almost forgotten strength he used to have back in the ER--before his mild breakdown--for when he needed to deal with gang members who were trying to impress those who came in with them by refusing anesthetic.

"All this will do is numb the area surrounding the incision. It won't inhibit any movement and it won't make you feel weak or giddy." He took a deep breath. "What it will do is make it easier on you, and on me. Easier to stay still while I work. You don't know me... but you have to trust me."

Ronon stared hard into Rodney's eyes, and even though Rodney had a feeling this man could tear him into tiny pieces with his bare hands, Rodney refused to flinch or back down. Just when he thought he had lost this battle of wills, Ronon's stare softened.

"Do it."

"Good." He breathed a sigh of relief.

Moving behind Ronon, Rodney went back to work, taking a moment to study the scar pattern and compare it to the readings on the hand held medical device. One of the reasons why he was such a gifted surgeon was because he could hold the image in his mind so perfectly that he didn't get confused by the blood and tissue lying in between. After numbing the area, he made the first incision directly through the scar tissue, wanting to avoid adding to the scarring already present. It took ten minutes to locate and extract the tracking device. Closing up the wound took several more minutes before he could stand back with a satisfied smile.

"That's it."

Despite the local anesthetic, Ronon was swaying a little and looking pale but that was understandable as Rodney had needed to dig pretty deep to extract the device. He ran a small healing device over Ronon's back, knowing it would help close the wound faster. Afterwards, he took another syringe and filled it with an antibiotic, all the while talking to his patient to distract him.

"This is a strong antibiotic that should help to prevent any infection."

He didn't give Ronon a chance to flinch away before swiftly injecting the contents. Ronon growled at him but, otherwise, remained still until John handed back the man's ragged shirt.

John reached out and squeezed Rodney's shoulder. "You did good, Rodney. Now let's get back to Atlantis before any more of these Wraith come looking for us."

Surreptitiously, Rodney pointed at Ronon while looking at John.

John smirked. "Yeah, he's coming too. I already cleared it with Jack."

"Oh. Right. Then we'd best head back before the Wraith come after... that." He pointed to the blood-covered tracking device.

"Yeah, plus the thirty-eight minutes are almost up," John added.

"What?"

"We've been keeping the Stargate busy but if we don't hurry then it's going to shut down... and then we'll have to hope either no one is waiting to dial in or Lorne's faster than them at dialing back out."

Rodney paled at the thought of the Wraith dialing faster than Lorne. According to Teyla, the Wraith often kept the Stargate busy when they culled a world so no one could use it as a means of escape. They had been lucky last time as the Wraith had been on a hunt rather than on a cull. This time they might not be so lucky, and then they would be trapped on this world with hungry Wraith all around them. Normally Rodney was meticulous on storing medical equipment, making sure everything was in its proper place but instead he picked up everything he had used on Ronon and dumped it inside the kit, leaving only the tracking device behind.

He indicated towards his kit. "I'll sort that out later," he stated tightly, ignoring John's grin.

When they reached the Stargate, Lorne was looking nervous.

"Cutting it fine, sir. Thirty seconds until the gate shuts down."

"Go! Go!" John ordered.

Rodney held his breath as he was rushed through by Lorne, not letting it back out until John appeared, last as usual. The Stargate shut down behind John, and Rodney found himself pulled out of the splash zone as Lorne began to dial immediately. His arm was grabbed and he was rushed through again, and again. On the fourth time through the gate--to Rodney's relief--they finally ended up in the beautiful gate room on Atlantis. Dropping his medical kit onto the marbled flooring, Rodney leaned over, hands on his knees as he tried to catch his breath. He glanced upwards when he felt a hand drop onto his back, unable to resist smiling back up at his lover.

"Mess. Usual time."

He nodded, still unable to draw enough breath to speak, and watched as John walked away with their new guest, flanked by some of Atlantis's finest marines.

"Rodney?"

Straightening, Rodney waved towards the medical kit. "Carson, I'll leave that with you. It's a mess... but I didn't exactly have time to pack nicely."

Carson smiled. "Aye, I suspect not. Why don't you take the rest of the night off. I can handle the infirmary."

"Um. Thanks, Carson."

He watched Carson leave the gate room with the medical kit and let his head hang for a moment, suddenly aware of exactly how tired he was after the day's events. Jack's voice drifted down from the level above.

"McKay? Rodney? You okay, Doc?"

Glancing up, Rodney waved a hand. "Fine. Tired. I think I'll go lie down."

"Yeah. Good idea."

It wasn't hard to dredge up a smile because it felt so good knowing he was in a place where people cared about him. Turning away, he made for the nearest transporter as he heard the siren song of his bed calling for him, and he was asleep the moment his head touched the pillow.

****

The mess hall was as busy as usual but the expedition members always tended to leave one particular table free at all times. Even the newcomers to the city quickly learned to keep that one table empty, or face the wrath of their colleagues. It wasn't set in some discrete corner but halfway along the line of tables overlooking the ocean. John had heard people call it the _command table_ , probably because it was where he and Rodney, and Jack and Daniel tended to sit--sometimes alone, sometimes in a group. There was no taboo on joining them, and John could recall plenty of times when he'd had to grab a chair from another table because the _command table_ was already crowded with Lorne or Radek, or Teyla on one of her all too infrequent visits to Atlantis. John was working on that though, trying to persuade Teyla to join his team permanently. She was a natural diplomat who could also kick his ass with those bantos sticks.

The sun had set hours earlier and the first of Lantea's moons was rising, casting a glow across the water. John checked his wristwatch for the second time in twenty minutes, finally deciding it was time to drag Rodney away from whatever had caught his attention. He tapped his radio and called the infirmary first.

"Colonel, I'm afraid Rodney's not here. I took over his shift as he looked a little peaked after today's adventures."

Thinking back to the gate room earlier, John had to admit that Rodney had been looking tired but he had put that down to the rush through several Stargates in order to make sure the Wraith could not trace them back to Atlantis. It was easy to forget that Rodney was not a soldier and that he rarely exercised despite ordering others to start a fitness program. John had an idea how to change that for he knew Teyla had taken quite a shine to Rodney after he attended the Athosian village a few months back and handled some of the various health problems that her people were experiencing. And only last week, he had used the Bone Knitter on Halling after the man broke his leg in two places while out hunting, sparing Teyla's spiritual leader from possibly months of recovery. John was sure she would agree to help him persuade Rodney to take up some exercise. She could be very persuasive, especially as Rodney was still a little afraid and in awe of her.

Instead of discarding his uneaten meal and busing his tray, John stacked another meal on top, making sure to add Rodney's favorite dessert. He headed for the transporter, making time to nod a greeting to Ronon, who was eating like a starved man, scooping food up with his fingers while his guards, Dietrich and Sloper, looked on in fascination.

It took only seconds for John to reach the residential area where he shared quarters with Rodney.

The door opened silently on his approach and he slipped into the room, stopping just beyond the threshold to allow the door to slide closed behind him. Any remaining tension dropped away as the illumination increased by a quarter and he caught sight of Rodney curled up on the bed, still fully clothed. Sighing softly, he placed the tray onto the table and knelt down beside the bed, staring at his sleeping lover.

He had almost lost Rodney today and he could still recall the ice-cold fear that had crawled through his veins when he saw Rodney go down. Then had come the greater horror of being too far away as the injured Wraith leaned over Rodney's paralyzed body, tearing open the blue shirt before drawing back its arm ready to strike and feed.

"Rodney," he whispered, echoing his desperate cry that had been answered by a stranger--Ronon.

Everything had seemed fine at first. No one had been panicking as they gated to the beta site but perhaps it was the second gate travel in as many minutes to Bug World that had affected Rodney. John had gone through last as always, wanting to make sure they left no trace behind, and all he could recall now was the urgency in the voices as he stepped through. His thoughts returned to that moment.

****

**Earlier on Bug World:**

"He's not breathing! Start CPR," Griggs called as he started to clear Rodney's airway.

"Rodney?"

Lorne stopped him as he rushed towards his lover's side, and John almost snarled at him, biting back an order for Lorne to let him go until Lorne's words penetrated the rush of fear.

"You need to give them space to work, sir."

The gate opened again and John straightened, pulling his emotions back under control as Ford relayed the medical emergency to the team standing by. He heard Carson over the radio.

"Bring him through. It'll not make matters any worse than they already are, and I have an infirmary full of equipment to stabilize him here."

"Take him through," John ordered but he could only watch as Rodney's unresisting body was pulled up between Griggs and Ford before they raced towards the Stargate. He was still staring hard at the rippling surface of the vortex long after they disappeared.

"Sir?"

John shook his head even though every cell in his body was screaming at him to follow them, but he had a duty towards his men and towards the man who had already saved Rodney's life once today. Still, he knew he would not relax until Carson sent a message back. The minutes crawled by before John heard his name called on the radio and recognized Carson's soft burr.

"Colonel, Rodney is going to be fine. His brain was simply too stunned to remember how to make his body breathe but he's stable now, and breathing on his own again." Carson took a breath, which John mirrored subconsciously. "Now, Colonel, I've heard there's a wee problem with an implanted Wraith tracking device?"

"How long until the stun wears off?"

"For Rodney? Oh, a couple of hours at most according to Teyla."

"Stay with him."

"But will you not be needing me--?"

"Stay with him," John repeated a little harder because he had to be sure Rodney had the best medical attention in case of a relapse, especially if John could not be there with him.

Carson agreed reluctantly, no doubt because he thought John was being over-protective. Only Jack had the authority to overrule John on this, and Jack's loyalty would be to Rodney before a stranger, even if that stranger had saved the life of one of his people.

"Send Rodney through with a surgical kit once he's back on his feet."

"I hardly believe he will be in the right condition to perform surgery once he awakens. His chest will be sore from the CPR alone, and then there's the--"

John cut off Carson's complaint, speaking to Jack instead. "General, I need Rodney on this. I told Ronon he was the best--no offense, Carson."

As he suspected, Jack was listening in. "Carson?"

John heard Carson sigh over the radio. "Fine. I'll prepare a surgical kit for Rodney but it could be more than an hour before he is capable of even holding a scalpel. Do you really want to wait that long?"

John turned to Ronon. "Well?"

"I'll wait."

John nodded, and realized he had one more thing to do while he waited for Rodney to recover. "General, I'd like permission to bring Ronon back to Atlantis once we have the tracking device removed."

"Permission granted... but we're going to have a little talk about bringing home strays."

"Yes, sir. I look forward to it."

"I bet. O'Neill out."

****

John's thoughts came back to the present, and to the man sleeping so soundly, curled up on the bed. Ronon had saved Rodney's life and in recompense, John had ensured the tracking device was removed and had given the man temporary shelter within the city. Admittedly Ronon was under guard while they got to know him a little better but it still had to be better than being a runner. He had a good feeling about Ronon though, because the man could have remained safe under cover rather than risk himself to save a complete stranger--Rodney. And if it had simply been a desire to kill more of the Wraith hunting him then he would not have picked up Rodney and carried him to safety through the Stargate. He would have stayed to carry on fighting his enemy.

Rodney.

Everything always came back to Rodney. Since the moment Rodney entered his life, everything had revolved around him in John's eyes and heart. He couldn't imagine never having his lover in his arms again, never again feeling the warmth of Rodney's breath against his neck as they moved to a slow and satisfying climax. He couldn't imagine never again feeling the silk of Rodney's skin beneath his fingertips as he traced the curve of muscle and bone, or the heat of Rodney's welcoming body as he sank deep inside his lover.

He stared at him now, drinking in the beauty of his lover while he debated over whether he should wake him or not. It hadn't exactly been a great day for either of them.

"Least I can do is take your boots off," he muttered to himself.

Carefully, he untied the laces and loosened each boot until it could slip free without too much tugging. Rodney hated socks in bed so he tackled them next, slowly rolling them down and easing them off each foot in turn. Strange but he had never looked at Rodney's feet before, or anyone else's feet. Toes had never interested him and yet everything about Rodney fascinated him, right down to his toes. John reached out with a finger, smiling as Rodney's toes curled as John traced a curve along the bottom of his foot but, otherwise, Rodney barely stirred, not even to mumble a complaint.

Decision made, John pulled off Rodney's pants next, folding them up and placing them on the chair that was just within arm's reach. Rodney remained deeply asleep, and if it were not for the rise and fall of his chest, and the soft exhalations, John might have panicked. He rarely saw Rodney so motionless and, once more, he couldn't resist the temptation to carry on stripping Rodney, carefully tugging off the t-shirt and drawing off Rodney's insanely patterned boxers. Once fully naked, another temptation overtook him and he found himself simply gazing down on his sleeping lover, letting his eyes feast on the expanse of naked skin from the bottom of his feet all the way up to the broad shoulders, dwelling on strong thighs, the swell of his ass and the pertness of nipples in a dusting of light brown chest hair. Finally, John sank to the side of the bed and stared at his lover's face, taking in the softness of his slightly parted lips, high cheekbones and the sinfully long, pale eyelashes that fluttered before stilling once more. He knew he could never have his fill of this quiet moment, of the man sleeping so soundly beside him, aware that all this could be taken away so quickly, just as he had almost lost him today.

Dinner was cold and long forgotten by the time John rose to his feet and quickly pulled off his clothes, folding them meticulously. Once naked he slipped into the bed behind Rodney, pulling the light cover up over both of them, and wrapped his arms around the warm body, drawing Rodney back against his chest and belly. He took a moment to nuzzle the fine hair, breathing in the smell of an alien world mingled with Rodney's unique scent. Eventually, John closed his eyes, still holding on tight to this most precious man as sleep claimed him.

****

**Six Days Later:**

The days following the Wraith incident had everyone feeling tense but John knew they had left no clues behind for the Wraith to follow. They had even gated through several uninhabited worlds to ensure that the last address on the DHD on Bug World would not be Atlantis. It wasn't foolproof but it was better than leaving a definite trail for the Wraith. In the days since, John had insisted on them stepping up security on Atlantis. The Ancients had survived a hundred-year siege but they'd had three ZPMs powering the shield. Currently, Atlantis had one almost depleted ZPM and five Naquadah generators and if there was a cache of ZPMs lying around on Atlantis then Daniel had yet to locate them despite spending most of his days buried in the Ancient database.

With no way of contacting Earth for supplies, Jack had agreed to John setting up off-world teams to see if they could obtain some of the essentials such as food and materials. Just as with Rodney's medical staff, none of the military were simply soldiers. Lorne had a masters degree in Geology, Jorgens and Griggs were engineers specializing in Search and Rescue techniques. Others, like Evans, were machinists, capable of building and repairing weaponry and making bullets. Even he and Jack had a masters in aerodynamics, and could fly just about anything.

Uninhabited worlds like Bug World had provided a lot of the raw materials they needed but until the botanists--mainly Parrish and Brown--could provide all of what they needed from the hydroponics area, the expedition would need to trade for food or live off their remaining rations.

Rodney had a liking for bland food and could probably survive indefinitely on MREs and PowerBars but the rest of them liked a little variety. Not that he had ever seen Rodney complain about anything slopped onto a tray in the mess hall, unless it contained citrus. Fortunately, Teyla understood their need for trade partners who asked no questions. The Athosians were mainly hunter/gatherers but they were happy enough to hunt for enough to feed the Atlanteans too. In return, she had negotiated the services of engineers and medics plus some of the surplus that Atlantis gained from other trade agreements.

Today, Atlantis was honoring its side of that agreement, which meant dragging Rodney off-world to fulfill their side of the bargain. Except Rodney rarely needed persuading to pay Teyla a visit; for some reason the two of them got along real fine and if John was the jealous type then he might have been worried. Rodney had wanted to check on Halling's leg, plus there was a woman about to give birth and the Athosian midwife was concerned for mother and child.

An hour earlier he had listened to the wail of a newborn. John knew that, in the past, the Athosians would have lost both in childbirth so he was grateful that they had Rodney and his head nurse to assist, but now it was time to head back to Atlantis. Except, Atlantis was not answering his call.

"Atlantis? Sheppard to Atlantis. Come in Atlantis."

John sent a worried look in Rodney's direction, making Rodney ask nervously, "What's happening?"

"I don't know. I'm not getting a response."

A voice came over the radio. "Sheppard?"

"Ronon?"

"You need to bring McKay back. People are sick."

"Sick?" John glanced at Rodney, who in turn exchanged a look of worry with his head nurse, Marie. "Buddy, you need to lower the shield."

Rodney listened impatiently as John relayed instructions, waiting until Ronon told him he had lowered the shield before grabbing John's arm.

"I should go alone."

"What! You are not going anywhere without me. I thought I'd already made that clear."

Rodney bristled because he really had not needed the Military Commander of Atlantis as his personal escort on a house call to the Athosians, and he certainly did not need an escort on Atlantis. He knew John was still being a little over-protective following the Wraith incident on Radiation World and so he had put up with John's frequent visits to the infirmary or to Rodney's laboratory just to make sure he was fine. However, this was taking it a little too far. He was in danger of being smothered by his lover, and although at first it had felt pretty good to know someone cared that much about him, now it was starting to make him feel claustrophobic. John needed to give him some space to do his job. Jack had not invited Rodney along as their Chief Medical Officer just for him to sit wrapped up in cotton wool in a padded room on Atlantis, which is where John would rather put him. Ignoring the way Stackhouse was trying to look anywhere but at them, Rodney griped John's forearm.

"You need to let me do my job, John. If people are sick then something is making them sick... and I can't risk you getting infected too."

"Yeah, well you'll be in just as much danger. Worse maybe, because I don't have a clue what's going on in Atlantis right now. If people are sick and no one but Ronon is on gate duty then there's a chance there's no one left in control either. I have to go back. I have to do my job."

Rodney huffed in annoyance because he could see John's logic even if he didn't like it. "Fine. But don't expect me to sit for hours by your bedside mopping your fevered brow."

"Wouldn't dream of it... Though who's to say it won't be me mopping _your_ fevered brow."

Rodney gave another put-upon sigh because John was right in that respect. Being a doctor did not give him automatic immunity to whatever was infecting the rest of the city. Although John had to admit that Rodney had not had so much as a cold since the alien farmer kidnapped him and force-fed him back in Morpheus with a cocktail of drugs. Obviously, it had wanted to ensure its livestock remained healthy and, despite slaughtering most of the others on Morpheus, it had decided to keep Rodney alive, perhaps as breeding stock.

Within moments of stepping through the gate, several marines appeared on the balcony above, armed with Zats. As the metallic sound of the Zat discharges struck the ground, John shoved Rodney aside viciously in one direction while he dived in another. Rodney glanced around in utter confusion. From his vantage point, he could see Stackhouse covering an already unconscious Marie, and the top of John's crazy hair.

"General? Jack! It's Sheppard!"

"Never heard of you!"

"Lieutenant Colonel John Shepp--"

****

Jack's answer was to fire again and this time Rodney saw John go down but before he could race to his lover's side, Ronon grabbed him by the arm and dragged him in the opposite direction. Rodney saw Markham and Bates go down in a haze of a red flash, and silently hoped Ronon had his gun set to stun but he really didn't know the ex-Runner well enough to know for sure. Instead, Rodney was dragged along corridor after corridor, with Ronon stopping only to check around each corner. Spotting the closest transporter, Rodney went straight for it but Ronon caught the back of his TAC vest and dragged him away.

"Not working."

"Not..?" Panting hard from the unaccustomed exertion, Rodney did not have the breath to ask more, dutifully following Ronon down several flights of stairs instead and cussing under his breath when Ronon shoved him hard against a wall. A large hand plastered over his mouth; the meaning clear. Rodney shoved the hand away and whispered harshly. "John--"

"Stunned only."

"Why? What happened?"

"Not here."

Ronon dragged him round the corner and into the infirmary where Rodney came to an abrupt halt when he was faced with a wall of familiar faces, all looking scared and belligerent.

"Carson?" He raised both hands in a placating gesture. "It's Rodney! Lower the laser scalpel."

"Rodney? I don't know any--"

Ronon stepped up softly. "Check your top pocket."

Carson looked even more confused. "Now why would I do such a thing?"

"Because I made you put something there earlier. In case you forgot."

Carson fumbled in his pocket and brought out a photo. Relief filled his eyes as he looked at the photo and the words scrawled in his own handwriting. "Aye. You're Rodney. My friend."

Ronon closed the door behind them and pushed several heavy items up against it. He didn't say a word when Rodney gazed in horror around the crowded infirmary, following behind him as Rodney moved from patient to patient, unnerved by the lack of all but basic care. Rodney sat heavily on the closest bed, despite it being occupied, uncertain where he should begin but aware that he needed to know what the hell was going on before he started working. He looked from one frightened person to another, finally landing his gaze on Carson.

"Now tell me what happened here."

Carson shook his head and Rodney angled his body as Ronon started explaining the events of the past day.

"Some of your people went to the mainland. They came back sick. It spread fast after that."

"But I've only been gone what... eight hours?"

Rodney knew there were plenty of virulent strains of bacteria and virus that could act that fast and he had instigated a quarantine lock down protocol should something of this nature arise. Atlantis should have picked up the presence of such a virus and acted on it immediately. Obviously the quarantine lock down had not worked.

"Why didn't anyone recall me?"

"Forgot you," Ronon stated solemnly. "By the time Doctor Beckett figured out what it was, everyone was infected and losing their memories fast. O'Neill made a decision to keep your people safe. Had the military taking stims to slow down their memory loss, locked away all the projectile weapons, handed out them little Zats and started rounding up your people. Locked most of them in the mess hall with blankets, food, water and medicine."

"And what did you figure out?" Rodney looked to Carson, expecting him to describe what he had discovered but Carson looked scared and blank. Rodney turned back to the only person who seemed able to recall anything.

"Kirsan Fever. It's a common kids' ailment in Pegasus. Had it when I was ten. I told your Doctor Keller and she said I must have immunity but she kept forgetting she'd talked to me. You need the sap of the enchuri plant."

"What?"

"Told Beckett it's a cure for Kirsan Fever, and I know what to look for. Grows like a weed on Sateda. Except O'Neill has stopped the gate from dialing out, gave some crystal to Zelenka and told him to hide it. Didn't want to lose people. Enchuri grows on a lot of worlds though, so I figured we'd go for one of the little ships. Head to the mainland... but Carson forgot how to fly."

"Wait. Wait. Wait. If you knew what we needed then why didn't you say so before I came through? I could have asked the Athosians--"

"Don't know the Athosians."

"Don't..?" Rodney closed his eyes. "Of course you don't." He opened his eyes and stared at Ronon. "You've been here, what, six days?" The one person who still retained his memory was the one person who had no reason to trust anyone, not even their closest ally in Pegasus.

"Couldn't risk them deciding to take the city while you were all sick. I owe you."

Rodney rubbed a hand over his face. "Okay. Okay. So... I can fly a Jumper but Sheppard's a better pilot. Anyway, I need to work on a means of distributing the cure. The quickest way would be to aerosolize it and distribute it through the ventilation system. But I don't know how to override base protocol for temperature, humidity and air pressure."

"You figure that out. I'll get Sheppard and the enchuri sap." Ronon paused. "Doc? You got another picture of you and Sheppard."

"Why?"

"Just in case."

It seemed sensible so Rodney quickly logged into a laptop connected to the Atlantis network and printed off two copies. He wrote on both photos before handing one to Ronon, slipping the other into his own pocket--just in case.

Ronon moved the barricade, opened the door and slipped away, leaving Rodney frowning in dismay. He was a medical doctor, not a physicist, but at least he had some understanding of Ancient technology and an aptitude for handling the systems that even Carson--for all his natural ATA gene--could not comprehend.

Over three hours later, Rodney had most of it figured out but what he didn't have was the enchuri sap. He had expected John and Ronon back over an hour ago and in that time the condition of those around him had worsened. Carson was still on his feet but he could barely function as a doctor any more, unable to recall anything beyond the most basic first aid. Others were worse still; feverish and unresponsive. He had a steady stream of ice packs on the go, having to show the nurses where to apply them every single time because they simply forgot, and if Ronon did not bring the cure soon then Rodney knew there would be more fatalities. He had already lost one patient, Doctor Baxter, and if Rodney was right then Baxter was probably Patient Zero, the head of the mainland research team, which had gone to investigate the possibility of growing crops on the mainland.

It meant more deaths would follow soon.

As he stared at the barricaded door, he wondered if the epidemic had burned itself out before he returned as he had felt no ill effects at all--no fever and no noticeable loss of memory. If that was the case then John was perfectly safe too but that only made him more concerned at his and Ronon's absence.

"They should have been back by now. Something's gone wrong." He clenched his teeth in determination. "Carson... I'm going out there."

Before heading for the door, Rodney quickly checked Carson's pocket for the photograph because he doubted Carson would recall him without his constant presence as a reminder.

"I've set the laptop up to send an alarm every 20 minutes. When you hear the alarm, follow the instructions on the screen."

Carson nodded, but his reassuring smile faltered. "What's a laptop?"

Rodney closed his eyes and sighed. "Just... Barricade the door behind me."

After ensuring that Carson had followed his order, Rodney moved quietly along the corridor, listening for the sound of one of Jack's patrols. The dull thud of approaching boots had him slipping into Carson's genetics laboratory and he waited until they had passed by before peering back out. Rodney managed to reach the next intersection before Lorne spotted him. He raised his hands as Lorne and two others shouted at him to halt.

"Major Lorne. I'm not a threat--"

Rodney collapsed to the floor as the Zat beam struck him in the chest.

When the Zat's effects wore off, Rodney groaned and grabbed his aching head. Opening his eyes, he stared with dismay from the inside of the security holding cell. The force field bars had been activated, but standing just beyond them holding his P90 in a tight grip was John.

Rodney could see no recognition in John's eyes as he stared through the bars at him.

****

John stared hard through the bars at the belligerent man. He had no idea who this man was and yet he felt a strange kinship to him as if his body knew him all too well even if his memory had failed him. The man crossed his arms defensively and John realized that all the arrogance and bluster was just an elaborate bluff. John could read the very real fear in the blue eyes, and he smirked, knowing that would make it that much easier to break the man and get the truth out of him. Although getting him to talk had been the easy part. So far, Rodney McKay had barely stopped to draw breath, but none of what he was saying made any sense.

McKay claimed to know him--intimately--but that wasn't possible. Not for him.

Stepping closer to the bars, John tilted his head and let his heart harden before he started in with more questions. Before he could demand more answers from McKay, the main door slid open and another stranger entered with his gun raised. John turned sharply and had his own weapon trained on the stranger instantly but the stranger made no move to attack or fire.

"Sheppard, check your top pocket. We need him. You need him."

John glared in the stranger's direction but curiosity won out. He reached into his top pocket while still keeping a firm grip on his P90, withdrawing a photo. On it was the image of him hugging the man currently standing behind the bars, and scrawled along the bottom edge were the words: _This is Dr. Rodney McKay. He is your lover. Protect him at all costs._ John stared at the gun-toting stranger before glancing back at McKay in surprise, but he could not deny an attraction towards McKay. He flipped the photo around and held it up to the energy beams confining McKay, watching as McKay's eyes widened in relief before narrowing in annoyance.

"So you believe me now?"

John had the good grace to look a little apologetic because McKay--Rodney--had been telling him this all along, but at least he didn't have to apologize for worse than simple disbelief. When Rodney had tried to convince him that they were more than colleagues, and more than friends even, some deep-rooted remnant of a shredded memory had told him it was not possible, that he was not allowed that sort of relationship. Or possibly that he did not deserve to have what he wanted. Either way, the thought had angered him, and he had almost gone into that holding cell to prove to Rodney that there was no relationship between them beyond John's fist in his stubborn, arrogant face. Only an uneasy feeling playing at the back of his mind had stayed his impulse to beat the truth out of the man.

"You need to let him go. He can help everyone."

"How? And who the hell are you?"

"Name's Ronon. You have Kirsan Fever. We went to the mainland, Sheppard. We got the cure, remember."

John frowned because he had no memory of flying and yet... "You shot me!"

Ronon gave a half-smile. "You forgot who I was and tried to shoot me first."

John had to admit that even now he could feel his memory slipping further away, and only holding onto Rodney's bright, blue-eyed gaze anchored him for a moment longer. Rodney came closer to the bars but avoided touching them.

"John, I need you to get me to the infirmary so I can start synthesizing the cure."

John nodded slowly, still confused but some deeper feeling told him he could trust Rodney; that he had to trust Rodney.

"Okay." He drawled, glancing at the cell and frowning. "So... How do I turn this thing off?"

Rodney closed his eyes and sighed. "Okay, okay. You keyed it to your command only so... so close your eyes and think... OFF."

John gave him a dubious look.

"That's it?" he said, but decided to play along.

When he opened his eyes, the energy cell bars were gone and Rodney was grinning at him. The smile sent a wave of pleasure coursing through John, and for that reason alone he let the last of his doubts fall away. He might not remember Rodney but, deep down, he knew him. He knew Rodney and quite possibly loved him. Unfortunately the grin faded when it was clear that thinking OFF had not unlocked the holding cell, just lowered the additional energy beams.

Rodney snapped his fingers. "Check your arm!"

"What?"

"Roll up your sleeve and check your arm. No, under the wristband," Rodney ordered and John rolled it aside to reveal a list of five numbers.

He tapped the numbers onto the control panel and grinned when the cell door slid open smoothly. As Rodney stepped out of the cell, John reached out and touched his face, and his fingers tingled with sense memory. Yes, he might not remember but his fingers knew Rodney and they itched to explore more of the man standing before him.

"John," the word was choked off, almost pleading as Rodney grasped John's fingers. John could not resist leaning in to capture the generous mouth and soft, beckoning lips, creating the weirdest sensation inside him for he knew those lips too, deep down inside, he knew all of Rodney.

"Sheppard! McKay!" They startled back and glanced towards an exasperated Ronon. "The cure, McKay."

"Yes. Yes. The cure. I'll get right on it. Um... You did manage to get the... ?"

Ronon did not need to answer Rodney in words as his raised eyebrow and expression said everything for him.

"Right. Yes. We'd best get going. And maybe later you can explain what took you so long because I don't think John's going to remember."

Several times they had to backtrack when they came across a patrol. Rodney had to keep reminding John why it wasn't a good idea to simply take out the patrols with the P90. Apparently, these were his people, his men, and he had to admit that they wore similar clothing to his own so Rodney had a point. The problem was that they didn't remember that he was their commanding officer from one minute to the next, forgetting him the moment he moved out of sight, and he had the same problem with them. All they could recall was some order to keep everyone contained in the mess hall for their own safety, and they were going about it in the most zealous fashion.

Eventually they made it to the infirmary only to find it barricaded.

"Damn it, Carson! Open the door!" Rodney yelled and the door opened a sliver.

"Who are you?"

"Carson. It's me. Rodney, obviously."

Carson narrowed his eyes. "I don't know you, lad, and I don't want to hurt you so best be on your way before the guards try to round you up."

"Carson, in your pocket there's a photo of you and me. Look at it."

Carson gave him another suspicious glare but fumbled in his pocket and, with a surprised look, he drew out a photo. He glanced up at Rodney's face, blue eyes wide and turned the photo around. On it John could see two men walking across a meadow wearing similar paneled uniforms. The two men were Rodney and this Carson, and underneath was scrawled, _Rodney is my friend_.

"Open the door," Carson called out behind him and John heard heavy items being shifted. The door opened wide enough for all of them to slip through and was closed tight behind them.

"Carson, I need to get to work, and I'll need your help. Ronon?"

Ronon brought two bags over and handed them to Rodney while John stood guard by the door. He watched quietly for a time as Rodney began to boil down the plants within the bag, waiting until Rodney stepped back before drawing his attention.

"What happened to us?" John asked.

"I'm not entirely sure. I was on Athos with you, Stackhouse and Marie. Teyla had requested assistance for a woman having a difficult childbirth and, well I know obstetrics isn't my main area of expertise but I've delivered a number of babies under exceptional circumstances in the past. In fact there was one woman who came into the ER with--"

"Rodney!"

"Yes, yes, getting off the point. When we tried to return, the gate opened but no one answered... except for Ronon."

John listened as Rodney mentioned John being stunned by someone called Jack, of Ronon bringing Rodney here before offering to collect the plant they needed from the mainland, taking John as his pilot. Finally, Rodney spoke of worrying about him, leading to his decision to find out why they had not returned.

"So, having wasted an hour of my precious time locked up and being interrogated by you, along came Ronon. Who still hasn't explained where he was for the past three hours." Rodney narrowed his eyes. "Also, what I don't understand is why you were infected so quickly... but not me."

As Rodney couldn't tell John what part he had played through all this, John turned to Ronon. Ronon stared hard at him and John had a feeling that the man was unaccustomed to talking so much but John needed to hear what had happened.

"Not going to remember anything I say in ten minutes."

"If Rodney gets his cure ready then maybe I will."

Ronon sighed. "Rescued you from the mess hall. We took a Jumper to the mainland and I left you there while I went looking for the enchuri plant. When I got back, you'd forgotten who I was and tried to shoot me... and missed. I shot you. Tied you up while you were stunned and had to wait for you to wake up. Took time to persuade you to take us back to Atlantis with the plants. When we landed, Jack's men were waiting. I got away and took the plants to the infirmary, figuring that was more important, but McKay was gone. Took me a while to find him... and to find you too."

Rodney clapped his hands and rubbed them together. "And here we all are... and here is your cure for Kirsan Fever."

Rodney pressed a series of controls and John heard a loud hissing. His vision began to swim almost immediately and all over the infirmary, he saw people crumpling to the floor. Rodney's agonized cry of his name followed him to the hard floor and into unconsciousness.

****

Rodney stood up and rubbed at his sore back. Apart from Ronon, he was the only one unaffected when the cure was pumped into the ventilation system. People collapsed all over Atlantis, and he could not even call for help from the Athosians as an important crystal was missing, and there was no one to fix the dialing device even if Ronon had been able to find it.

With no other options open to him, he and Ronon started in the infirmary first, picking up those who had fallen to the floor unconscious.

"One, two, three... LIFT!"

All the beds were already filled so Rodney and Ronon carried all the rest of the unconscious men and women into the corridor outside, placing them head to toe along the far wall, using anything he could find as bedding and pillows. As he set up IVs for the worst stricken, Rodney worried about all those he had yet to get to, aware that others might be dying while he saw to the needs of someone less critical, but triage methods only went so far when there was but one doctor on hand. Even in his days spent with _Doctors Without Borders_ , he had never had so many people relying on just a single doctor.

The members of the original survey team were in the infirmary--the ones who had brought the infection back to Atlantis--but without sufficient resources, and being only one man, he could not stay with them and nurse them through the worst. Doctor Brown was the next worst affected after Baxter and he feared for her life but he knew that too many others could be dying while he focused on one patient.

With almost two hundred expedition members, Rodney had no hope of bringing them all to the infirmary, especially with the transporters out of action. Fortunately, Jack had confined all but a few of the military and medical staff to the mess hall. Under the circumstances, it was a wise decision and made Rodney's task just a little easier. Once he and Ronon had settled everyone on the infirmary level, they carried a heavily laden gurney down two sets of stairs to the level holding the mess hall. Once or twice Rodney thought they were going to lose the precious load of IV poles and bags, and his medical bag but, somehow, Ronon always managed to correct the balance before anything spilled.

"Doc?"

Ronon stopped halfway along the final corridor and Rodney moved up beside him, already anticipating what he would find. He recognized the soldier immediately and crouched down beside him, relief fluttering in his chest when he located a steady pulse.

"Not much I can do for him right now. Let's get him comfortable and... I come back for him once we've unloaded the gurney."

"I can do that."

"Hmm?" Rodney glanced up from where he was easing Lorne's head onto a makeshift pillow.

"I can round up the rest and bring them to you."

"Yes. Yes that would be good." It made sense, as then Rodney would not have to waste time walking between more than just the infirmary and mess hall. "I can show you how to check the life sensors from medical. Of course, they don't cover the whole city because... well... some parts didn't fare so well over the past ten thousand years underwater."

"Sure."

They settled Lorne against the corridor wall; only moving on once Rodney had double-checked the major's vitals to ensure he was in no immediate danger. He knew from Ronon that some of the military had been taking stims to slow the progression of the sickness and he worried about accidental overdoses and respiration problems. He would worry later about possible withdrawal symptoms.

They reached the mess hall soon after. Two guards had fallen just outside the main doors and Rodney was never so glad that Radek had taught him how to switch and bridge crystals to override the locking mechanism. The door opened to the sight of over a hundred collapsed bodies, filling Rodney with dismay even though he had known what to expect. Ronon squeezed his shoulder and Rodney took a deep breath.

Where to start? He thought, and decided he may as well just straighten limbs and do fast checks, slowly making his way around the hall. Almost an hour later he had barely managed to check a third of those present, discovering that quite a number were fevered and dehydrated. Setting up IVs was slow going even with Ronon's occasional assistance, and Rodney hated to think how he would have coped had he been totally alone.

Next in line was the little Japanese scientist who calibrated the infirmary equipment. Miko was in bad shape but all Rodney could do for her was set up an IV to combat dehydration and make sure she was comfortable. After hanging the next to last IV bag off a piece of lattice work, Rodney turned to Ronon, who had just returned with another unconscious soldier that he had found out in the hallways somewhere.

"I need you to get more of these," he ordered, pointing at the IV bags, and gained a single nod before Ronon was off running, leaving Rodney to move onto the next patient. It seemed strange to think that less than a week ago he thought Ronon was some sort of throw-back to a caveman, and now he was relying on this stranger to help save the lives of people Rodney had come to care for deeply--his lover, friends and colleagues.

Sudden movement across the hall had his heart skipping a beat in fear because he had been feeling so utterly alone. He stepped carefully and cautiously over still sprawled bodies.

"Marie?" His head nurse sat up slowly and, beside her, Rodney saw Stackhouse moving too. "Oh, thank you, thank you," Rodney sighed. They had been with him on Athos so had not been exposed to the Kirsan Fever as long as the rest of the expedition. That meant John could be waking up right at this moment too. Or he might already be awake and be looking for him.

Marie rubbed her forehead tiredly and gave Rodney a tremulous smile. Beside her, Stackhouse sat up and stared around the hall in shock.

"Yes, yes. Lots of unconscious people. Even your help would be appreciated, Sergeant."

Stackhouse pushed slowly to his feet, swaying a little before standing firmer. "Sure, Doc. What do you need me to do?"

Rodney carried on through the mess hall, checking on everyone but no longer wasting time straightening limbs and setting up IVs' Instead he created a quick system of placing an upright tray against anyone who needed additional fluids, leaving that task for Marie while Stackhouse made patients comfortable in Rodney's wake; Rodney made a few exceptions along the way. He carefully removed Daniel's glasses and tucked them into Daniel's top pocket where they would be safe, and he took a little longer to check over Jack when Ronon brought in his unconscious body--found in the gate room control area--asking Ronon to place Jack next to Daniel. So far none of those taking the stims had shown any respiratory problems but he wished he could keep a closer eye on them anyway.

Eventually, Rodney had completed a first pass across the hall. When he returned to the infirmary to check on the more serious cases there, he found his second casualty. Rodney took a moment to mourn the loss of someone who had died while he was checking on more than a hundred and fifty patients elsewhere. Even though he had anticipated such a loss it still came hard. He flinched as Marie dropped her small hand on his shoulder, startling him as he thought he had left her in the mess hall earlier.

"Her name was Katie Brown. She was a botanist."

"I know. She found a fern that produces this special enzyme that we thought might cure leukemia." He let out a ragged sigh as he brushed her damp red hair off her too-pale and sweat-soaked forehead. "I... liked her."

"She was part of the original survey team to the mainland so she was likely one of the first to contract the fever."

"Hmm. Yes. We lost Doctor Baxter a few hours earlier."

Rodney glanced around the infirmary, seeing Parrish lying pale and fevered but stable for now. He rubbed a hand over his tired eyes, brushing away the unshed tears that were as much from grief as from exhaustion. All doctors learned that you couldn't save everyone but it still hurt, especially as he knew these people by face if not by name too. It hurt Rodney to know that if just one more person had been capable of watching over the critically ill then she might have lived.

"Ask Ronon if he wouldn't mind moving her body to the morgue. I don't want anyone to wake up and find... " He choked on the remaining words.

"Yes, doctor." Marie's small hand tightened a fraction. "Rodney, you've been working nonstop for hours. You need to take a break before you're no good to anyone. We've accounted for everyone now--though I hear Doctor Zelenka proved a challenge to find--and Ronon has brought the more critical patients to the infirmary, and placed the less critical ones into the corridor. Sergeant Stackhouse is monitoring the patients down in the mess hall, and I'll join him there in a moment."

It felt selfish but Rodney snatched at the chance to stop for just ten minutes, nodding his head in thanks and settling down on the ground next to John with a coffee and a PowerBar that Marie seemed to have pulled out of thin air. He saw Marie leave and Ronon enter moments later but Rodney tore into the PowerBar, swallowing it in just a few bites before slowly sipping his coffee. All the while he stayed focused on John's fevered face.

"Why aren't you awake?" he whispered, brushing his hand through the dampened cowlicks. Stackhouse and Marie had been exposed for the same length of time and both of them had awoken hours earlier. In fact, Rodney was certain that some of those exposed long before they had gated back from Athos were starting to stir... but not John. He wondered if it might have something to do with the ATA gene as neither Marie nor Stackhouse had the gene.

Ten minutes later, his radio crackled into life and he listened to some good news. People were definitely starting to wake up. He closed his eyes, promising it would be for only a few minutes but snapped them open immediately when a weak voice called his name.

"Rodney?"

"John?"

He put down the coffee carefully before cupping the side of John's face with a shaking hand, unable to stop grinning John's green-hazel eyes took time to focus on him.

"Thought you said... not to expect to find you at my bedside... mopping my fevered brow."

"Hmm! I believe I said I wouldn't sit for _hours_ at your bedside. It's been less than ten minutes."

"You look like death warmed over."

"You don't look so hot yourself. Except, actually, you do look hot even sweaty and... and... "

John pressed a finger against Rodney's lips. "Tired."

"You and me both. Sleep then. I have to go... ," he thumbed over his shoulder but let the words trail off when he realized John had already fallen back into a restful sleep, but Rodney was smiling when he leaned over and kissed John softly on his slightly parted lips.

****

As more of the medical staff woke, Rodney found he was able to step back a little. Many were simply feeling weak but Rodney asked that everyone remain in either the infirmary area or the mess hall as he simply couldn't spare the time for house calls if everyone dispersed to their own quarters and then had a relapse.

"Rodney?"

Rodney glanced up tiredly from the patient he was tending, blinking rapidly as he took in Jack's tired face.

"You should be resting, Jack," he stated softly.

"Actually, that's what I've come to talk to _you_ about. Get some rest, Rodney. You've done enough. Let one of the others take over."

Rodney took in a breath to say, _What others?_ , but then noticed a few of his staff on their feet and working over other patients. All of them looked tired and weak but resolute in their tasks, and it made him feel incredibly proud of them. It occurred to Rodney that he had been working for nearly seventeen hours straight--if he included the complicated pregnancy and the line of Athosians that he had seen before returning to the dilemma on Atlantis. Perhaps if he had turned in early the night before--as John had suggested at the time--then he wouldn't be feeling so exhausted now but he had wanted to work down an avenue of his research so he could hand the project over to Wagner before heading out to Athos. He sighed. Eighteen years ago he could have taken long hours like this in his stride but then, he had not been expected to carry unconscious people and deal with the best part of two hundred patients alone, especially when some of their problems had been aggravated by the way they fell. On top of IVs for the more severely dehydrated, he had needed to restrict further damage on one broken leg for a marine who had fallen down a set of stairs, a broken wrist in the infirmary, and a dozen or so cuts and gashes from where people struck parts of their bodies against furniture when they collapsed.

It was fortunate that most of the expedition had already been lying down, too sick to move. But he still felt guilty about the few who had sustained accidents even though he'd had little choice at the time. If he had tried to deal with all the cases of Kirsan Fever on a one-to-one basis then he would have seen far more than two deaths.

"Rodney?"

He frowned, realizing he had zoned out and wondering how long Jack had been calling his name. Jack rested his hand on Rodney's shoulder before sliding it down his arm to his biceps.

"You've done good. Let it go now."

Rodney let Jack lead him towards his office just off the infirmary and he didn't argue when Jack pressed him down to the cot lying against the far wall.

"Just a short nap then," he murmured and smiled at Jack's unconvinced, "Yeah. Right, McKay."

****

Rodney awoke slowly, momentarily confused when he registered his office around him as he couldn't recall going to sleep there. Someone had removed his boots but, otherwise, he was fully clothed. He sat up and swung his legs over the edge of the bed, taking a moment to locate his boots and smiling wryly when he spotted them. The way they were lined up so precisely spoke of someone either military or suffering from OCD, but not John. John had a tendency to kick off his boots and pad around their quarters bare-footed. Dragging the boots closer, he pulled them on quickly before heading to the door leading to the infirmary. Rodney paused on the threshold and stared across the quiet and orderly room. Beds had been straightened, and the detritus of medical packaging, trays and other implements had been cleared away to leave the floor space between the beds as pristine as Rodney liked it.

He wandered into the infirmary, moving from one occupied bed to the next, taking down charts and glancing through the notes. Doctor Xiang nodded curtly, and the duty nurse smiled but Rodney could see the smudges of fatigue darkening the skin beneath their eyes.

"Doctor McKay?"

Rodney was already turning before Anna called to him, drawn by a waft of fresh coffee. Real coffee. He hadn't realized they had any left and had been making do with the coffee substitute traded for on PX-something or other for the past month.

"Is that... ?"

She smiled at his obvious pleasure as he inhaled it deeply before taking the first sip. It was probably not the best coffee on Earth but at this particular moment it was definitely the best in Pegasus, and it was all his.

"Hey, Rodney!" John entered the infirmary, looking sheepish and rubbing the back of his neck. "I wasn't expecting you to be awake yet."

Rodney translated that from Sheppard-speak to, _Sorry I wasn't here when you woke._

"I'll let the General know you're up. He wants to arrange a full debriefing."

John shifted uncomfortably from one foot to another and Rodney translated that too. He knew his lover wanted to touch him, hold him, but they had agreed to keep the personal displays of affection to a minimum outside of their quarters, and especially when they were working

"Hey, is that... ?"

"Yes, and it's mine." Rodney pulled the mug of coffee closer to his chest, gaining a chuckle of amusement from John. Embarrassed, Rodney held out the mug because this was John, his lover and best friend. "You can have a sip."

"Wow! You really must love me," John whispered, stepping in closer. He closed his eyes and inhaled, making Rodney's stomach flip in pleasure, but then drew back. "Nah! You deserve it." He took a few more steps back towards the door, eyes never leaving Rodney's so he could convey more than his spoken words would allow. "I'll call Jack."

The call to a meeting came fifteen minutes later, and Rodney barked out a few orders to his staff before heading off.

The usual faces were already ranged around the conference table when he arrived, all of them looking tired and drawn. Jack and Lorne looked particularly bad, reminding Rodney that he needed to give them and the other soldiers a thorough examination to make sure they had no ill effects from the stims.

"Rodney," Jack greeted him and he took his usual seat next to John.

Over the next hour, Rodney learned everything that had happened before his team returned from Athos. Although they had discussed emergency procedures before, this was the first time they had been forced to put those plans into operation. Lessons learned and possible improvements were discussed in light of what had happened. Radek proposed setting up a project to enhance the quarantine protocols to include other potentially dangerous Pegasus diseases, which Rodney agreed to assign to Willis, their immunologist when he wasn't being an ass.

Most of them couldn't recall much of what happened after the disease began to rob them of their memories and Rodney doubted anyone would regain the missing memories from that day. Silently, he decided that perhaps it was for the best as then no one would recall how they had stood around confused and lost while others were slowly dying. His own recounting of those hours was filled with the bitterness of losing two people who might have been saved if he could have devoted more time to their individual care.

No one blamed him but Rodney had already added their names to his personal list of preventable losses.

Jack leaned in. "One thing troubled me. Why didn't you get sick?" He raised a finger. "Not that I wanted you to get sick."

"I wondered about that too," Rodney stated. "I'll need to check, of course, but I think it had something to do with the antibiotic cocktail given to me by the alien farmer after it captured me. I haven't had so much as a cold since then."

Carson leaned in. "You think whatever was in that cocktail killed off the Kirsan infection?"

"There were anomalies in my blood work following the Farmer incident," Rodney added thoughtfully.

John and Jack shared a concerned look but Rodney didn't need to be a genius to understand what they feared, but they would be wrong. He was convinced that the alien farmer was more ancient than the Ancients and the Atlantis database had made it clear that the humans in Pegasus had been seeded by the Ancients. For all any of them knew, the alien farmers had never been to Pegasus. After all, the universe was filled with galaxies too numerous to count--but the basic building blocks of life may still have come from them. The Ancients might have been simply another race that had grown to intellectual maturity before they could be harvested by the Farmers that had seeded them millennia ago.

"I think the Wraith are a more immediate threat than another Farmer," Rodney added. Jack and John exchanged another look, coming to some military conclusion that Rodney was right--obviously.

"Next item on the agenda is Ronon Dex."

Rodney straightened up. "Before you make any rash decisions on whether or not we should allow him to stay on Atlantis... if he so wishes... I'd like to point out that without his invaluable assistance, we might have been looking at major casualties."

Daniel smiled. "On the contrary, we've already extended an offer for him to stay."

"Oh. Then why raise an issue--"

"Not exactly an issue, Rodney," drawled John, sprawling back on his seat and smirking. "Seems Ronon has taken quite a shine to you. I've offered him a place on my team, and he's agreed so long as _we_ are the ones assigned whenever _you_ need to go off-world."

"Hmm! Well, obviously he's seen how valuable I am to this expedition and wants to ensure my safety."

"Yeah, that's probably it." John's eyes narrowed slightly but really, Rodney thought, John had nothing to get all possessive over. Although Ronon cleaned up quite nicely, no one could replace John in his heart. It belonged to John completely.

"Well!" Jack rubbed his hands together. "Guess there's just one more item on the agenda."

He stood up and came around the table.

"Doctor Rodney McKay. In recognition of your heroic actions and the tireless and selfless performance of your duty during this recent crisis, I'm placing a commendation into your personal file."

John cleared his throat. "Of course, we might never regain contact with Earth so don't let it go to your head."

Rodney gave John a dirty look but he couldn't help but feel some of his sorrow and regret fade just a little at the unsought recognition.

****

**Epilogue:**

When John entered their quarters he found Rodney waiting for him and, for once, Rodney didn't have his nose buried in his laptop studying reports from the medical department. Instead he was lying on his stomach on the bed with his head propped up in his hands, reading a comic off his laptop screen. John sank onto the bed beside him and glanced at the colorful images.

"Batman?"

"Hmm! Turns out Sergeant Stackhouse is a big fan and had his entire and extensive Batman comic collection scanned onto a couple of flash drives. Radek uploaded them onto the Atlantis server so anyone could read them." Rodney's eyes were bright with pleasure when he looked up at John. He indicated towards the laptop. "Have you seen all the movies, TV shows, books, comics and music on here? It's amazing!"

John frowned. "You mean you hadn't? I thought everyone knew about... " he waved a hand in the direction of the laptop. "We've been watching movies and TV off there for... months."

"Huh! Really!" Rodney looked genuinely surprised. "I thought this was just something the marines had set up. Wasn't expecting to see anything other than those high gore action flicks you insist on inflicting upon me, American Football and porn." He winced dramatically. "Seen enough gore in my day job recently... and I don't need the porn when I've got you," he added with a crazy leer and wiggly eyebrows that made John laugh out loud. He loved it when Rodney was in a playful mood, more so because it was so rare these days. Pegasus had taken a lot out of both of them over the past couple of months.

Leaning over, John captured the smiling lips in a tender kiss, moaning his appreciation when Rodney rolled onto his back and dragged John down half on top of him, the laptop temporarily forgotten. They kissed indulgently, savoring each tiny lick and nibble before deepening the kiss--tongues curling lazily around each other as Rodney's hum of appreciation vibrated through John, sending shivers of anticipation straight to his groin. John's fingers grazed Rodney's cheek, feeling only the slightest rasp of bristles as he stroked the strong jaw encouragingly. He pulled back a fraction and ducked in fast to kiss the tip of Rodney's nose.

"And what about sports?"

"Are you kidding me? No ice hockey!" Rodney leered, "Unless that's an innuendo for some bedroom sports."

John laughed and tightened his hold on his lover. He pulled back again, licking his lips. "How about I ditch the laptop somewhere safe so you can show me why you don't need to watch porn?"

"Oh... good idea," Rodney answered breathlessly.

It took only a moment for John to close the lid and slide the laptop onto the bedside table before he was kissing Rodney again, and enjoying Rodney's enthusiastic response. John's hand pushed under the pale t-shirt, smoothing over Rodney's soft belly and hard rib cage, fingers trailing through light brown curls until they found a taut nipple. Rodney moaned gloriously as John rubbed the small, ultra-sensitive nipple, bringing it to a hard peak, writhing against John. He loved the way Rodney thrust his chest up against his fingers, greedily demanding more attention, and knew exactly how to give it. Stripping off the t-shirt took only a moment of coordinated effort, leaving Rodney bare-chested and accessible to the scrape of teeth and tongue.

The soft mewling of pleasure was better than any music, and the way Rodney squirmed beneath his touch made John shake with need. Yet still he wanted more--wanted to feel Rodney completely naked beneath him, wanted to touch him, wanted to press deep inside him, possess him fully. No other lover had ever made him feel so out of control, so desperate to touch and be touched. Only Rodney, and John wasn't sure if he could survive losing Rodney. Rodney was more than his lover--he was his reason for living too.

John's hands swept the curves of Rodney's ass and thighs as he pushed off the boxers, eventually grabbing the edges of the material so he could draw them all the way off his lover's pliant body before discarding them carelessly over the side of the bed. He sat back on his heels and dragged his eyes from the tips of Rodney's toes up over his hard cock to his flushed face, momentarily lost in the heat of Rodney's lust-filled gaze. Electric shocks of pleasure ran through him as Rodney let him drink his fill, seeing legs falling apart wider in clear invitation.

His. All his. And he would fight anyone who tried to take Rodney away from him.

All he needed was in the small bedside drawer, and Rodney watched him hungrily as John greased his fingers generously before reaching from his lover.

"Oh yeah," Rodney whispered as John prepared him, legs sprawling wider apart and pelvis tilting forward to give John all the access he needed. John knew by the soft, "Oh, oh," sounds that he had brushed over Rodney's prostate and he repeated the thrust of his fingers, adoring the way Rodney fell apart beneath him, cock leaking pre-come that striped his belly with every rocking movement. He knew exactly when Rodney was close to the edge and stopped, gaining a soft wail of frustration... but he needed to be inside Rodney when he came, needed to feel all those strong muscles clenching hard around him when Rodney found his release.

With trembling fingers, John rolled on a condom, using a generous amount of lube over it before pulling Rodney up the incline of his thighs and positioning himself against the loosened hole. He pushed in slowly, much to Rodney's verbal frustration, and muscle gave way instantly. John moaned in pleasure as he sank slowly into the tight heat of his lover's body, only stopping once he was all the way inside, pressed up tight against his lover. He leaned down and kissed Rodney.

"So good," John murmured against Rodney's mouth. Rodney bit down on John's lip hard enough to sting, intensifying the pleasure.

"Fuck me, John. Fuck me hard."

John didn't need to be asked twice, drawing back before slamming in hard, feeling Rodney's body rock beneath him with each hard snap of John's hips as he thrust in to the hilt. He watched avidly as strong, agile fingers wrapped around Rodney's hard cock, fist moving in perfect timing with a small twist at the end and thumb rubbing across the sensitive head. With body shaking and muscles clenching down hard, Rodney threw back his head and cried out as he came, the sheer perfection of the moment overwhelming all of John's senses so he followed Rodney only two thrusts later, burying himself hard and deep inside his lover as his release stripped away all thought beyond the sweat-soaked man now lying boneless and sated beneath him.

Afterwards it was easy to simply lie there quietly together as their racing hearts gradually slowed, caressing warm skin and trading soft kisses. Rodney murmured a protest when John moved to get them cleaned up, hardly stirring when John wiped away the splash of semen from his stomach. He murmured his approval when John slipped back into the bed beside him, and John pressed a small kiss against Rodney's sweaty temple in response.

All too soon the call to duty would snatch them from this quiet moment and draw them back into a world where people depended upon them. For now though, John let his thoughts drift, thinking back over the past couple of months and to all the danger they had found both on and off Atlantis. As if reading his thoughts, Rodney sighed.

"Need to arrange another exploration mission back to the medical tower," he murmured. "There's still so much to discover. And it's not the only tower in the city. There could be so many other marvels just waiting to be found." He wriggled against John. "Remember those little Goa'uld palm-sized healing devices? The Goa'uld were scavengers. Those devices were Ancient in origin, and the Goa'uld must have figured out how to imprint them onto their own genetic code instead of them needing the ATA gene. But more than that, Carson is convinced there is a link between the Goa'uld and the Ancients."

"I thought the Goa'uld were some sort of slug-like parasite."

Rodney poked him in the chest. "Yes... but I think they were the result of another experiment gone wrong."

"I don't follow."

Rodney leaned up on one elbow, smiling crookedly.

"The Ancients were looking for a means to free the mind from the body... to ascend. What if handing over the reins of their body to another was one way to free the mind of all responsibility?"

John rolled his head to the side to face Rodney, intrigued by what his lover was saying.

Rodney carried on. "A long-lived creature could keep the body alive indefinitely while the original... eh... owner took the time they needed to meditate and finally leave their body behind. Ascension."

"Except it backfired and the Goa'uld took humans against their will instead."

"Well... yes. Frankenstein's monster. And it wouldn't be the first time."

It was John's turn to roll onto his side and lean up on one elbow so he was facing Rodney. "What do you mean?"

"Um... remember the Wraith body we found? Just as we suspected, it shares DNA with an Iratus bug, confirming the entries Daniel found in the database."

John shuddered. He hated bugs, recalling the way the creature had tried to slowly suck the life out of him, and the paralysis that had crept over his body as he lost the battle against it.

"The Wraith were another failed experiment... one that bit them in the ass and set them scurrying back to Earth."

John dropped back onto the bed. "And how many more failed experiments--like exploding tumors--are going to come back to bite **us** in the ass?"

Rodney dropped forward onto John, resting his head on John's chest above the faint scar left by the surgery. John knew it would have been a far more pronounced scar had Rodney operated on him in a normal hospital on Earth that had no access to Ancient healing technology.

He felt Rodney sigh heavily, his breath warm against John's clammy skin, knowing his lover had no answer. None of them had an answer because the Ancients had eventually figured out how to ascend and had left all of their broken and dangerous toys behind them when they eventually moved on. And those Ancients that didn't find ascension lived and died almost as humans, passing their ATA gene into the new humans seeded by another alien farmer--another farmer who had overslept. If Rodney was right then the Farmers were the original architects of humanoid life, and the Ancients were their crops left to grow wild on some other world in, possibly, another galaxy, eventually becoming in turn the builders of paths between the stars and galaxies. For all John knew, the Furlings, Nox and Asgard were also crops that had not been harvested, evolving into beings that became as powerful as the Ancients.

Perhaps some of those answers lay buried within the Atlantis database and would be uncovered slowly by linguists of Daniel's caliber. Perhaps some of those answers were lost forever, buried beneath the sands of time or frozen beneath the ice like the alien farmer on Earth. Perhaps the current crop of humans would eventually become the Ancients in the eyes of the next generation. It gave John a headache thinking about it so he pushed the remaining thoughts aside.

What mattered to him most was the here and now--the dangers lurking within the city but also the threat of the Wraith. They had seen them now, and it had taken their status from rumor to reality. John knew it was only a matter of time before the Wraith realized that the descendants of the Ancients had returned to the great city of Atlantis, and then they would lay siege to it again. Except this time the battle would be short because Atlantis had neither a shield nor weapons capable of repelling such an attack.

Tomorrow he would speak to Jack in earnest to see if Jack could put more people onto the task of scouring the Ancient database for clues on how to find or build more ZPMs and drones. He doubted Daniel would argue. As for Rodney? Yes, there was still a ten thousand-year-old medical tower standing close to the north pier that might yield answers to questions already posed, or might lead to further disaster, but John knew it would be a waste of time trying to rein in the scientists. Their thirst for knowledge was insatiable, and Rodney was no different in that respect.

For now, though, he had Rodney in his bed, and in his arms, and if only for this one night, he would try to protect him from the fucked-up universe beyond their door.

THE END

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Fugue, Art for Tarlan's Distant Memories](https://archiveofourown.org/works/120155) by [omg_wtf_yeah](https://archiveofourown.org/users/omg_wtf_yeah/pseuds/omg_wtf_yeah)
  * [Art for Architects of Fate: Distant Memories by Tarlan](https://archiveofourown.org/works/119180) by [taibhrigh](https://archiveofourown.org/users/taibhrigh/pseuds/taibhrigh)




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